Industry | 2010.03.13
Google news tax could boost local papers, report says
Commission of inquiry calls for levies to promote new media, warning that too few interests control too many outlets
Google and other websites that carry news they do not produce should be taxed and the money generated used to prop up local newspapers, says a report which warns control of the media is concentrated in too few hands.
The Commission of Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society, headed by Tony Blair\'s former head of policy, Geoff Mulgan, will warn next week that news is becoming "recycled \'churnalism\' and aggregated content". In a report, Making Good Society, the commission says a future government must preserve freedom on the internet, ensure the media is not controlled by powerful interests, and promote accuracy.
It says four publishers control 70% of the local and regional press, three companies – BBC, ITN and BSkyB – produce national television news and just four companies have nearly 80% of the commercial radio market.
In a rapidly changing market, more than 100 local and regional newspaper titles vanished last year – a trend amplified, says the commission, by advertising revenues and audiences shifting to online platforms. "The advent of free newspapers, the emergence of 24-hour television news and the popularisation of online and mobile platforms have all contributed to a far more volatile and unstable environment for news organisations."
The report argues for levies to promote new media and encourage a diversity of news sources. Recycling money in this way, say the authors, is not new for Britain. Google could generate £100m a year for cash-starved media if it was taxed for the content it distributes.
The commission also says the law should be changed to allow charities to fund news gathering. In the US there is a model of "philanthropy journalism" which has seen the Huffington Post website secure cash from charitable foundations to fund its investigative reporting.
British charity law "adopts a stringent interpretation of public benefit that excludes any reference to news gathering" – and the commission argues this needs to change so that civil society can be involved in media ownership.
The report points out that civil society already produces its own media. Ofcom, the industry regulator, found the third sector spent an estimated £80m on public service content online in 2006-7.
To promote truthfulness, the report backs the idea of a "kitemark system" that would provide "transparent information on how content is produced".
The report also backs the BBC, saying that a recession makes it all the more pressing to "protect the respected, world-class, independent and original journalism produced". It says resources should be found through new industry levies rather than "top-slicing" the licence fee.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/13/newspapers-internet
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