Almost two-thirds of Google's $100-million media fund will go to print, digital media
Story by Peter Zimonjic • CBC
Internet search giant Google has agreed to pay Canadian news outlets $100 million annually, indexed to inflation.© The Associated Press
Almost two-thirds of the $100 million Google must give to news outlets across the country each year will be distributed to print and digital media, with the remaining third split between CBC/Radio-Canada and other private and public broadcasters.
Government officials outlining how the compensation will be divided said Friday that CBC/Radio-Canada's portion of the fund will be capped at seven per cent, while other broadcasters in the country will split 30 per cent. Print and digital media will share the remaining 63 per cent of the fund.
The annual compensation for news organizations, required by the Online News Act, will be distributed to outlets based on the number of full-time journalists they employed in the last calendar year who were producing original news content.
The Online News Act, which became law on June 22, 2023, takes effect December 19. It requires digital platforms with 20 million unique monthly users and annual revenues of $1 billion or more to compensate news outlets for sharing links to their pages.
Only Google and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, meet those criteria in Canada. Google's deal requires it to pay $100 million a year, indexed to inflation. Facebook escaped the need to strike its own deal by no longer sharing links to news pages.
While Meta opted to remove news links, Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said Friday the company may still fall under the act when it comes into effect on Dec. 19.
"Yes, they are trying to ban news but we know that Canadians find ways to share news anyway, so their ban is not fully working," Pascale St-Onge said Friday. "So will they fall under the legislation or not? The CRTC needs to pay attention to that."
If the CRTC decides not enough effort has gone into removing links to news articles on Meta, the company could become subject to the act.
That would compel Meta to either do more to remove links or strike a deal similar to Google's. If Meta fails to come to an agreement, the law requires that it participate in mediation.
If mediation fails, the law says an arbitration process would evaluate proposals from the platform and the affected news services. The arbitration panel would then choose one of the offers.
"We've been clear for months that the regulatory process could not address the fundamentally flawed premise of the Online News Act," said Rachel Curran, a spokesperson for Meta Canada.
"News outlets choose to use our free services because it helps their bottom line, and today's release of final regulations does not change our business decision to end news availability on Facebook and Instagram in Canada."
As part of the deal, Google provided assurances that Canadian news outlets will be treated fairly in comparison with deals it might strike with news media in other countries.
The federal government said that if news outlets in other countries strike a better deal with Google, the company would go back to the federal government "with a view to resolving any concerns."
Eligibility and distribution
Under Section 11.1 of the Online News Act, news organizations that are eligible to receive funding under the deal include non-profit and for-profit outlets that produce local, regional and national news content.
Government officials said Friday that after the act comes into force, eligible news organizations are required to answer a "call-out" by Google.
News organizations in the call-out that demonstrate they qualify for funding will then join a collective that will speak to Google with one voice to hammer out details of the funding they will get.
Any administrative costs incurred by the collective will be deducted from the $100 million fund. Google will cover its own administrative costs outside the fund.
St-Onge has said that the collective distributing the money will be required to do so in a "transparent manner under the legislation" and the process will be "supervised by the CRTC [Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission]."
Media companies that qualify under the act but do not want to be a part of the collective can make a pitch to the CRTC for permission to strike their own deals directly with Google. To be successful, media outlets must convince the regulator their negotiations are fair and also benefit other companies that qualify for funding.
The regulations unveiled Friday say that news outlets are required attest that most of money they get from the fund must be used to "support the production of local, regional and national news content."
Media outlets receiving funding must also attest that they will not undermine freedom of expression or journalistic independence by interfering in an outlet's editorial process.
Google can strike non-monetary agreements with news outlets to provide them with in-kind technical support under the act, but it must be over and above the $100 million fund.
Media, Google react
Google issued a statement Friday saying that while it maintains that the Online News Act is "fundamentally flawed legislation," it is pleased that it managed to strike a funding agreement with the federal government.
"Fortunately, this means we will be able to continue sending valuable traffic to Canadian publishers and Canadians will be able to continue enjoying the Google products they know and love while we work through the exemption process," the statement said.
News Media Canada, a group representing print and digital media in Canada, issued a statement welcoming the regulations, saying that it works out to about $20,000 per journalist.
"Today, we have a solid regulatory framework with teeth that ensures Google compensates news publishers — large and small — for the exceptional reporting our journalists do, without fear or favour, on behalf of their fellow Canadians," said Paul Deegan, CEO of News Media Canada.
CBC/Radio-Canada also welcomed the regulations, saying they will "help ensure that Canadian news organizations receive compensation for the journalism they produce.
"It is also important that the regulations recognize that the news provided by CBC/Radio-Canada has value and should also receive compensation."
The statement did not say how its seven per cent will be shared between CBC and Radio-Canada, but the corporation said it will "work with its media partners and digital platforms on the next steps."
Kevin Desjardins, president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, which represents private radio and TV stations in Canada, said he is disappointed with how the fund will be distributed.
He told CBC News that Canadians turn to radio and television for news and broadcasters are investing in their services to ensure those platforms survive.
"So on that level, we think that at least this piece of the puzzle is not aligned with what the reality in the marketplace is and I think it underscores the need to find other ways to support broadcast news," he said.
Dec 15, 2023
Online News Act funding capped for private broadcasters, CBC: regulations
, The Canadian Press
The Liberal government has put a cap on how much money CBC and other broadcasters can get from Google after the tech company agreed last month to pay $100 million annually to compensate Canadian news companies.
CBC/Radio-Canada will get no more than a $7-million share of the annual fund, while another $30 million at most will be reserved for other broadcasters, according to final regulations released Friday that will implement the Online News Act.
The other $63 million will be shared among other qualifying news outlets, such as newspapers and digital platforms.
Independent news outlets and outlets from Indigenous and official language minority communities must also benefit from the fund, the regulations said.
Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge told reporters Friday that it's a fair approach.
"Having more equitable relationships and commercial relationships between tech giants and our newsrooms is an essential part in ensuring the sustainability of our news sector," St-Onge said Friday.
"And ensuring that journalism continues to play its role in democracy."
As a result of the deal, Google will be exempt from the Online News Act, which compels tech companies to enter into compensation agreements with news publishers for linking to their content, if it generates revenue for those digital giants.
Google still sees the law as "fundamentally flawed," but is pleased it was able to find "a viable path to exemption in the final regulations," a spokesperson for the company said in a statement Friday.
"Fortunately, this means we will be able to continue sending valuable traffic to Canadian publishers and Canadians will be able to continue enjoying the Google products they know and love while we work through the exemption process."
For outlets to qualify for the money, their content must be available on Google Search.
Other outlets that produce news but don't have an online presence, such as campus radio stations, will be excluded from funding under the deal.
Once the law comes into effect next Tuesday, Google will have to launch an open call in which eligible news businesses have 60 days to request a slice of the $100-million pie, which is to be indexed to inflation.
The money will be distributed proportionately to how many full time-journalists companies employ.
In order for news businesses to be eligible, they must have at least two full-time employees.
Small print and digital outlets can expect to receive about $17,000 per journalist that they employ, an official with the Canadian Heritage Department said Friday in a technical briefing for journalists. The briefing was provided on the condition that the officials not be named.
The reaction in Canada's news industry was mixed as the government rolled out its final regulations.
CBC/Radio-Canada welcomed the news. "We know that one law or set of regulations won't solve all of the challenges facing the news business in Canada. But it will help," a spokesperson for the public broadcaster said in a statement.
News Media Canada, which represents hundreds of publishers, also applauded the regulations.
But the Canadian Association of Broadcasters expressed disappointment, saying they don't reflect the role private broadcasters of all sizes play in the Canadian news marketplace.
And the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada said they believe the regulations "leave ethnic media to fend for themselves."
Friday's regulations came after months of tension between Google and Ottawa.
The Liberal government ultimately bended to the Silicon Valley tech giant's demands after it threatened to remove news links from its search engine — even though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed zero interest in compromise.
He said over the summer that their "bullying tactics" would not work on his government.
Liberals have since celebrated the Google deal as a win, but the Conservative critic for Canadian heritage, Rachael Thomas, has accused the government of caving to Google's demands.
The government had initially sought compensation that would have amounted to closer to $172 million, according to a formula that was included in an earlier draft of the regulations.
Google said they were days away from beginning the process of removing news from their products in Canada, before they were approached by the government "in the final hours" with a proposal that addressed their concerns.
Even before the Online News Act became law, Google was offering to pay news businesses $100 million annually.
The company currently has existing deals with news publishers, but it remains unclear if those contracts will be renewed in light of the new deal.
The only companies big enough to fall under criteria set out under the Online News Act are Google and Meta.
For its part, Meta responded to passage of the bill by ending access to news for Canadian users of Instagram and Facebook.
That position remains unchanged.
"We've been clear for months that the regulatory process could not address the fundamentally flawed premise of the Online News Act," Rachel Curran, head of public policy for Meta Canada, said in a statement.
"News outlets choose to use our free services because it helps their bottom line, and today's release of final regulations does not change our business decision to end news availability on Facebook and Instagram in Canada."
St-Onge has previously told The Canadian Press that Meta could still be regulated under the act, as social-media users find loopholes to share news on its platform.
However, that decision will be up to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which will regulate the law.
The official Opposition has promised to repeal the law if they get elected.
"A common sense Conservative government will defund the CBC and replace the dystopian Liberal news ban with a bill that restores balance for small, local and independent voices in the media," Thomas said in a statement Friday.
THEY WERE IN POWER FOR A DECADE AND NEVER DEFUNDED CBC, AND THERE ARE NO MORE SMALL LOCAL INDPENDENT VOICES IN THE MEDIA DUE TO INDUSTRY CONSOLIDATION INTO THE POSTMEDIA MONOPOLOY
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 202
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