We can’t wait for Big Tech to solve our local news crisis

Zachary Richner, Cameron Nutting Williams and Jeremy Gulban, opinion leaders | The hill

The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent antitrust case against Google has shone a spotlight on the tech giant’s role in the American news ecosystem. Federal prosecutors argue that Google’s dominance in digital advertising harms advertisers and publishers who pay the company a portion of their revenue to serve their website ads.

While the outcome of this case could financially benefit the predominantly large media companies that rely on this practice as their primary source of revenue, the impact on small, independent media companies is less certain.

As publishers of local newspapers, we join our colleagues in the media who want fair compensation for the use of the content we produce. But local news can’t rely solely on Big Tech to solve our industry’s ongoing financial crisis. It’s time to adopt policies that don’t rely solely on antitrust regulations to save local news.

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This commentary is part of The Hill’s “How to Fix America” ​​series, examining solutions to some of the country’s most pressing problems.

Zachary Richner is a director at Richner Communications, Inc. Cameron Nutting Williams is chief revenue officer of Ogden Newspapers and former president of the board of directors of America’s Newspapers. Jeremy Gulban is the CEO of CherryRoad Media.