The demand that the tech giants should pay more to the Indian newspapers for using their content was to come sooner than later and it came on Thursday. The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has written to Google asking it not only to compensate the Indian newspapers comprehensively for using their content, but also to share the details of its advertising revenues. Amid the changing dynamics of the digital media landscape, the immediate repercussions of which are being felt by none other than the print media and mostly in a negative manner, the demand is totally legitimate. Google and its peers should realise the realities and hopefully there’s no repetition of an Australia-like tussle.

The two basic demands the INS placed before Google are: the tech giant should increase publishers’ share of advertising revenue to 85 % and also make sure there is enhanced transparency in revenue reports it shares with Indian news publishers. While this is the first time such a demand has been raised in India and there is a feeling also that it has been triggered by the recent radical changes sweeping the Australian media industry, the fact is that it’s the need of the hour and monopoly cannot be enjoyed exclusively by a single entity, however huge and impactful it may be, when it comes to revenue sharing. It needs mentioning that the existing revenue sharing pattern between Indian news publishers and the social media or tech giants is rather opaque. At the end of the month publishers are handed over a cheque and neither there is any break-up of details pertaining to the percentage of revenue the amount contains nor there is disclosure of the exact methodology followed in the process. It should be a correct observation that Indian news publishers, just like their global counterparts are finding their advertising share getting captured by the digital space and these giants are indisputable gainers in the tectonic changes happening in the advertising value chain by using the news content. It’s an undeniable fact however that it’s through using this ‘content’, which is the cumulative output of hard work of thousands of journalists on the ground and editors at desk, the tech giants have tasted such great commercial success in India and credibility. Reportedly, Google has agreed to compensate and pay news publishers in France and EU in a better way and Australia has passed a legislation altogether compelling the global social media giants to pay for news content shared on their platforms. This has to be the norm across the world including India.

Pay honestly and with transparency. It’s a reasonable demand which the tech giants should view more as a moral obligation than as a bargaining effort.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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