By BRYCE DOLE/Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — A bill that would require big tech companies to compensate Oregon newsrooms for sharing the local journalism on their platforms appears to have died.
In a 15-14 vote, Senate Bill 686 failed to pass the floor of the Oregon Senate on Tuesday. Eleven Republicans and four Democrats voted no, but Senate Majority Leader Kayse Jama, D-Portland, subsequently changed his vote from a no to a yes to refer the bill back to a committee for further review.
Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City, an early supporter of the original legislation, voted against the bill and subsequent referrals to committee.
Less than a week remains in this year’s legislative session, and lawmakers are still weighing a slew of bills, including a massive transportation package that is changing by the day. Proponents will be hard-pressed to vote the bill out of committee in time to advance the bill through both chambers.
The bill, called the Oregon Journalism Protection Act, would have charged companies like Google and Facebook at least $122 million annually for the use of media produced by journalists statewide. The bill would incentivize companies to enter a written payment agreement with publications or face liability in court.
To avoid lawsuits, those companies could either pay a flat fee or determine a different payment through arbitration and fund a consortium at the University of Oregon that supports journalism statewide through grants. Money under the bill would be distributed to newsrooms based on how many journalists they employ in the state.
Many Oregon newsrooms are struggling with mass layoffs as dwindling advertising revenue and fewer subscriptions have prompted publications to lay off employees and close. On Tuesday, lawmakers voiced concerns about this decline, but they debated whether the bill was the antidote to this problem.
Proponents argued these tech giants unfairly profit off journalists’ content on their platforms as journalism crumbles. They said the decline of local news harms civic engagement, and that journalists play a critical role in holding powerful people and institutions accountable.
“They need a fighting chance in an unfair market,” said Sen. Khanh Pham, D-Portland, who carried the bill and accused such companies of having monopolized the media market. A former intern at Willamette Week, Pham added: “Inaction guarantees the inevitable: more Oregon newsrooms close.”
Pham said 18 Oregon news outlets have closed since 2022.
Opponents, including lawmakers from both parties, said they were concerned the bill would result in court challenges. They also feared further consequences that could further weaken small publications: Big tech companies that have lobbied against the bill, including Meta, have said they would pull Oregon news from their platforms if it passed. (Meta owns and operates several of the world’s largest social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.)
Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, pointed to Meta’s decision to ban Canadian news on its platform, which caused issues for some local publications.
“We say we want to support local journalism,” said Meek, who noted that he subscribes to local publications. He added, “But this bill does the opposite.”
The bill has been referred back to the Senate Committee on Rules. Whatever happens with the bill this year, Pham said she would reintroduce it in the future.
“Mega platforms have tremendous firepower when it comes to lobbying, law firms, and public relations,” Pham said in a statement after Tuesday’s vote. “But we have the obligation, and the duty, to do right by Oregonians, and do what is right. I will continue to champion local journalism, because it is vital to a healthy democracy, keeping our communities connected and engaged, and holding powerful entities accountable – including the legislature.”
Journalism has been cheapened a great deal in recent decades but it hasn’t gotten less expensive. The average American household now spends nearly $275 per month on telecom services, very little of which reaches the content providers that we call journalists. All the money goes for the medium and very little for the content which is ironic because the medium is built largely on public land and public airways owned by us.
In any event we have been waiting to see how things would shake out once the information superhighway was well established and now we have our answer. Traditional quality journalism, balanced, professional journalism, has been decimated. It’s not okay. Democracy dies in darkness.
Where to we go from here? It’s very simple- We pay a fair price. We subscribe.
What is a fair price? I can’t answer that but I do know that it isn’t zero. So let’s get in the habit of paying at least something to local journalists, at least a few dollars. If it were just 10% of the average telecom consumption that would be over $25 per month. Even half that, even third of that, when there are enough of us, can keep the light of journalism shining on the happenings and controversies in our community.
Right now donations our are being matched by a major donor to The Lincoln Chronicle.
https://lincolnchronicle.org/yachatsnews-launches-one-month-fundraising-campaign-aimed-at-small-monthly-donations/