• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 8, 2018

One significant financial TV model now wants to expand to other media platforms: That is, making all media distributors pay for content -- whether advertising-supported or not.

A couple of months ago, Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of News Corp., called for Facebook and Google to subsidize any news content -- from the News Corp.’s newspapers, for example -- that goes through these digital media platforms.

This was reiterated recently by News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson.

For decades -- while the pay TV system was being built up -- cable, satellite and telco -- broadcast networks didn’t get paid in retransmission revenues. All that has changed, which is helping companies that own those networks soften the blow from regular periods of lower advertising revenues.

You can see how newspapers -- which are also owned by companies that have TV networks and stations -- now want the same thing. But it is complicated.

Much of the current newspaper content on Facebook, Google and Twitter could be characterized in terms of its promotional value. But that doesn’t help newspapers pay the bills when print ad revs endure steady double-digit percentage declines.

And now, Facebook has changed its News Feed algorithm, due to a rash of faux news. The social network now prioritizes posts from friends and family over those from publishers and content providers.

Murdoch and others say Facebook should be paying for “trusted” news publishers.

Still, newspapers publishers might be barking up the wrong media revenue tree. Much of Facebook’s overall content comes from social-media conversations that dominate those factually based news reports.  

Is that what newspaper companies want? Sure, they want engagement with their readers, but the integrity of their reporting would get lost in the mash-up of dubious content on digital platforms.

Research has shown nearly 70% of U.S. adults get their news from social-media sites -- with around 20% saying they get it “often,” per a Pew Research study.

So digital media platforms still have some leverage.

But with questionable fake news content on their platforms, possible federal regulation and growing unease among big-time advertisers, changes need to be made regarding the value content on digital platforms.

Newspapers might now like to say: Stay tuned.