Publishers take on Facebook and Google for failing to pay up under the News Media Bargaining Code

You might have noticed on Tuesday this week 30 media outlets did not publish any news articles as part of a coordinated protest.

A group of mid-sized publishers took this action because Facebook and Google have refused to pay for their work under the News Media Bargaining Code, a new law introduced last year to force the tech giants to pay for public interest journalism.

Deals made under the law are shrouded in secrecy, but we know that so far millions of dollars have been directed to big media players such as New Corp, Seven, Nine, ACM, The Guardian and the ABC. This has been good for journalism and has created many new reporting jobs.

But a perverse outcome is the law helps the biggest media players while shutting out smaller and not-for-profit companies. Not ideal in a country that already has a huge problem with highly concentrated media ownership.