By William Turvill, PressGazette, May 19, 2022
Some of the world’s largest publishers fear that Meta could be poised to pull the plug on multi-million-dollar licensing deals as part of a lurch away from professional news.
The technology giant has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to the journalism industry in recent years through Facebook News partnerships, philanthropic initiatives and other schemes. Last year, it committed to invest at least $1bn into news between 2021 and 2024.
But now, with several governments around the world threatening to introduce legislation that would force the tech giant to negotiate larger news licensing deals, publishers believe Meta wants to distance itself from professional journalism.
Over the past week, Press Gazette has spoken to eight senior news industry sources based across the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Several of them are senior figures within publishers that have signed multi-million-dollar Facebook News licensing deals.
Recent Comments