• by Ray Schultz , June 18, 2023

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act -- a bill that would allow publishers to obtain payment for use of their content by tech giants like Meta and Google -- passed one key hurdle last week the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved it by a vote of 14-7.

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, said she will “keep working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get it passed by the full Senate and signed into law.” 

The bill allows media outlets to “band together and negotiate for fair compensation from the Big Tech companies that profit from their news content, supporting the local journalism that our communities rely on,” Klobuchar said. 

However, it is not clear when the bill will be brought to the Senate floor, and what it’s chance of passage is when it gets there.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), who voted against the bill, has raised the concern that money from that competition will go to “Wall Street dominated publishers,” not to newsroom workers, according to Deadline. Its prospects are also questionable in the House of Representatives. 

But Klobuchar argues that the bill is needed to protect small news organizations. 

The legislation is cosponsored by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Steve Daines (R-MT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Susan Collins (R-ME), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Angus King (I-ME), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

Meta has ferociously opposed such legislation. For instance, it has tweeted that if the The California Journalism Preservation Act (AB 886). passes, “we will be forced to remove news from Facebook and Instagram rather than pay into a slush fund that primarily benefits big, out-of-state media companies under the guise of aiding California publishers.”

Meta has taken a similar line in Canada, saying that “content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will not be available to people accessing Facebook and Instagram in Canada if Bill C-18, the Online News Act, is passed into law.” And it has been testing its blocking capability in Canada. 

According to Klobuchar’s office, the JCPA would empower “eligible digital journalism providers—that is, news publishers with fewer than 1,500 exclusive full-time employees and news broadcasters that engage in standard newsgathering practices—to form joint negotiation entities to collectively negotiate with a covered platform over the pricing, terms, and conditions under which the covered platform’s access to digital news content.”

The bill would also require covered platforms—“online platforms that have at least 50 million U.S.-based users or subscribers and are owned or controlled by a person that has either net annual sales or market capitalization greater than $550 billion or at least 1 billion worldwide monthly active users—to negotiate in good faith with the eligible news organizations.”