Ren Art 21-A to be Art 21-B, add Art 21-A §§338 - 338-b, Gen Bus L
Relates to journalism usage fees; requires notice to be given to a covered platform by an eligible digital journalism provider requiring covered platforms to pay journalism usage fees to eligible digital journalism providers; establishes arbitration requirements for disputes over such fees.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A7811
SPONSOR: Kelles TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to journalism
usage fees
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this bill is to create a process where local news
publishers are compensated for their work used on social media plat-
forms.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Article 21-A of the General Business Law is renumbered Arti-
cle 21-B and a new Article 21-A is added establishing Journalism Usage
Fees in Section 338 which provides definitions, the notice, and arbi-
tration of such fees.
Section 2. Effective Date
JUSTIFICATION:
American journalism is in crisis. The number of working newspaper jour-
nalists has fallen by more than half since 2008. Newspaper revenue
dropped by more than 50 percent from 2002 to 2020, and today, 60 percent
of U.S. counties have no daily news coverage.
A key reason for these declines is the rise and consolidation of digital
ad markets. Historically, newspapers were funded through direct
relationships with both advertisers and readers. Now, however, news
"aggregators" such as Google and Facebook have severed those relation-
ships, leaving publishers largely dependent on two large tech firms to
stay viable. This is particularly true of smaller, local publications
that disproportionately depend on Internet searches to reach readers.
Tech platforms not only benefit from the data they glean from news
consumers, which they don't share with publications, but they also sell
ads against news content, directly profiting from the work of journal-
ists. And their power prevents publishers from being able to bargain
with them on equal terms, forcing news organizations to accept unfair
and exploitative relationships, knowing there is no alternative.
This bill creates a process requiring tech platforms to pay news
publishers adequate compensation for their use of work produced by jour-
nalists. It would also require the proceeds of those negotiations to be
reinvested in newsrooms, ensuring that the funds go directly toward
supporting more working reporters.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Not known at this time.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Effective immediately.
