KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia newspaper publishers are coming together to initiate a move to force international technology companies, Google and Facebook, to share advertising revenue they have accumulated largely at the expense of the traditional media.
The move, undertaken at this initial stage through the Malaysian Newspaper Publishers Association (MNPA) follows a recent landmark decision by the Australian government to force Google and Facebook to share their advertising revenue with local media firms.
In a Reuters report last week, Australia's Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was quoted as saying the move comes after talks with Facebook and Google failed to yield results acceptable to both parties.
Established in 1971. MNPA represents most of the mainstream newspaper publishers in Malaysia, including publishers of the New Straits Times, The Star, The Sun, Borneo Post, The Edge, Berita Harian, Sinar Harian, Sin Chew Daily, China Press, Nanyang Siang Pau, Oriental Daily News, See Hua Daily News, Makkal Osai and others.
Like others around the world, Malaysian newspaper publishers have been experiencing sharp declines in revenue in recent years, primarily due to the migration of readers to digital online news.
Although traditional newspaper companies have likewise ventured into the digital world, revenue generation from online news continues to rest largely in the hands of Google and Facebook.
However, both Google and Facebook are mere aggregators of news mostly from traditional news publishers who are the ones having to incur manpower and other resources in producing such news.
MNPA chairman, Mustapha Kamil Mohd Janor said for more than 15 years, both Facebook and Google have been reusing content created by traditional media companies for their financial gains.
"These are content that we have invested a lot of our resources to produce. We are only asking for a fair share of the advertising revenue which they generate through our content," he said.
Mustapha added that traditional media companies in Malaysia have seen a prolonged period of sharp declines in revenue and most have had to resort to downsizing and retrenchments to stay afloat.
"We hope the government will consider looking into this issue and come to the publishers' aid," he said.
Source: New Straits Times