As a subscriber and reader of the Maitland Mercury over the past month you were able to meet the characters behind and those in the limelight at the Maitland Show, you were kept up to date with the latest debates and happening from council and read all about the exploits of Maitland's sporting stars.
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That's the type of stories, as well as many of national significance such as floods and the 2023 bus disaster, that reporters at the Maitland Mercury have provided for their community for the past 181 years.
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But the ability of our parent company Australian Community Media and others in the regional and national publishing sphere, including the ABC at a regional level, to be able to do that is again threatened by a multi-billionaire social media owner trying to not pay for content they use.
News media businesses employing thousands of Australian journalists have condemned Friday's announcement by Meta that it will withdraw funding support for Australian publishers providing news content on its Facebook platform.
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has put itself on a collision course with the Albanese government, which immediately slammed the social media giant's decision as a "dereliction of its responsibility to Australia".
"We're backing Australian journalism and to back Australian journalism means we have to have a viable news industry here in Australia," Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said on Friday. "We have to ensure that people who use content are paying for it."
Tony Kendall, managing director of this newspaper's publisher ACM, said ACM remained committed to reaching audiences with the trusted journalism that kept Australia's regional communities strong, informed and connected, but acknowledged that Meta's move would "significantly affect our business".
He urged the government to use the News Media Bargaining Code to force Meta to negotiate with publishers. The code was introduced in 2021 to compel global digital platforms to support Australian news content.
"The government must also take immediate steps to cease all advertising on any of Meta's platforms by government departments and agencies as well as individual MPs and senators," Mr Kendall told ACM employees on Friday.
Seven West Media boss James Warburton said the case for designating Meta under the code "has not only been made but proven".
Nine CEO Mike Sneesby said the value created for Facebook by credible Australian news content was "unquestionable".
"We strongly believe Meta should negotiate in good faith around the fair compensation for that value exchange," Mr Sneesby said.
ABC managing director David Anderson said the national broadcaster's agreements with Meta and Google had allowed it to add journalists to its regional workforce.
"The loss of this revenue would create a financial challenge for the ABC that would need to be resolved on a whole of ABC basis," Mr Anderson said in an email to staff.
News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said that Meta's decision would likely cost journalism jobs and result in fewer local stories being told.
"With less revenue coming into the industry you would have to assume that the industry will have to suffer some losses, and the main area would be people," he said.
Rod Sims, chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission when the bargaining code was developed, told The Guardian Australia: "The platforms often talk about wanting a free internet, but what they mean by that is they get all the benefits from people using their platform but don't share any of that with people who provide the content on the platform.
"I think that's a worrying trend, where social media companies obviously want people's attention so they can advertise to them, but they're not concerned about the type of content people are looking at on their website, which means they're not taking responsibility in a way I think they should and that of course is damaging our society."
Here's hoping we can bring you a story soon that Mr Zuckerberg and the other social media giants acknowledge the importance of the Maitland Mercury and mastheads across the nation to their communities and are willing to pay for using their content.
Michael Hartshorn,
Acting Maitland Mercury editor
