Canadian media outlets have come together to press Ottawa to level the playing field with tech giants that have become dominant players in news distribution as well as online advertising.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, publishers of several of Canada’s major newspapers signed a joint letter to the federal government this month asking it to “correct an historical inequality that dates back to the birth of digital media platforms.” The letter is aimed at the advertising revenue earned by Google and Facebook.
It’s estimated 80 per cent of digital advertising worldwide flows to Google and Facebook, but they don’t pay Canadian news providers for their content. “They are a duopoly in the truest sense of the world,” Postmedia CEO Andrew MacLeod