A policy that could finally get tech giants to start paying their overdue news bill is advancing in Oregon’s Legislature.
Oregon Senate Bill 686 would require dominant tech platforms to pay news organizations or donate to a fund providing news grants. It would generate at least $122 million a year to support local media.
In some ways this is a test.
If SB 686 becomes law, Oregon would be the first state to address unfair competition between tech platforms and news organizations since a federal judge, on April 17, found Google guilty of illegal conduct harming news publishers.
Making publishers whole, and giving America’s local press system a better chance of surviving online, will require more than just breaking apart Google as the U.S. Department of Justice has proposed.
It could take years for a breakup to restructure the search and digital-ad markets and benefits to most publishers may be diffuse and incremental.
Meanwhile there’s still the unresolved issue of companies profiting off news content without fairly compensating publishers.