• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 9, 2025

Oregon legislators thought they were doing a good thing when they introduced a bill to help local news publishers. But the measure has been rejected by Free Press Action, a group that works to support local media.

Like a measure that failed in California last year, SB 686 would require that Google, Meta and other online platforms compensate in-state newsrooms for using their content. This would be done through an arbitration process. 

It sounds like a fine idea, and presumably was done in good faith. But as written, SB 686 would divert “millions into the pocket of corporate media giants (like Sinclair, Gannett, and Nexstar), marginalize smaller community publishers, and incentivize tech platforms to block local news content entirely,” Free Press Action warns in a letter to the Oregon Senate’s Rules Committee. 

The letter continues, “Because 90% of the funding under SB 686 is set to be allocated to newsrooms based on headcount, and because eligibility is so broadly defined, it is likely that the largest corporate media entities will emerge as the biggest collective winners.”

Free Press Action helped pass a bill creating the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium. This group has distributed millions of dollars to local news-and-information initiatives since 2021, Free Press Action adds.

The letter continues that SB 686 creates “a proven incentive for tech platforms to stop showing local news entirely. When lawmakers in Canada advanced a similar bill, Meta blocked news on all its platforms, resulting in significant harm to smaller publishers with tight margins. In California, a similar bill prompted both Meta and Google to threaten the blocking or restriction of news links on their platforms.”

The group observes, “Wealthy broadcasters and corporate-owned chains might be able to weather this loss to an extent, but it would be a devastating blow to many local community outlets and promising start-ups who rely on these platforms for a large share of their audience traffic.”