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  • UP Police have arrested three government officials and 9 others for the murder of journalist and RTI activist Raghvendra Bajpai in Sitapur
  • Union minister Jitendra Singh said terrorists were behind the killing of three persons in Marhoon village in Kathua district of J&K
  • Uneasy calm remains in Manipur as tribal areas shut down after the Kuki-Zo Council called for an indefinite shutdown
  • Indian drug manufacturers are set to produce Emplagliflozin at a tenth of the price of the innovator Boehringer Ingelheim, after its patent expires on March 11. The companies in the running are Mankind, Torrent, Alkem, Dr Reddys and Lupin
  • The Budget session of Parliament will resume today against the backdrop of ongoing tussle over delimitation and three-language formula
  • Police have arrested a third suspect in the horrific rape-murder of foreign tourists and their Indian friend in Hampi in Karnataka
  • Stock brokers are upbeat that the present downtrend in the markets will see a reversal in March with reports by international analysts suggesting that the worst in the tariff war between the US and China and other nations almost over.
  • The Centre is in the process of implementing a 23-point agenda for regulation and reforms in areas like land, labour, utilities and permits to make life easier for businesses across the country
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that if businessmen take one step, the government is ready to take 10 steps with them
  • Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, K L Rahul shine with the bat after the spinner restrict New Zealand to just 251
  • Unbeaten India lift the ICC Champions Trophy by beating New Zealand by 4 wickets
  • 2nd ODI: Rohit Sharma roars back to form with a scintillating ton as India beat England by 4 wickets in a high scoring match in Cuttack
  • Supreme Court will appoint an observer for the mayoral poll in Chandigarh
  • Government makes it compulsory for plastic carry bag makers to put a QR or barcode with their details on such bags
  • GBS outbreak in Pune leaves 73 ill with 14 on ventilator. GBS is a rare but treatable autoimmune disease
Audacious gun-point robbery at a jewellery showroom in Ara in Bihar /////// Bhojpur Police chase the robbers and arrest two of them after a gunfight /////// Four gang members still at large /////// Jewellery worth Rs 15cr recovered from the total Rs 23cr worth looted, with one bag still missing
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News Content Generators Must Be Paid By Aggregators Like Google And Facebook

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-06-28 20:44:55

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

In a development that bodes well for news content generators all over the world, internet behemoth Google has decided to pay news content entities to carry "high quality" content in Australia, Brazil and Germany. The decision is not by choice or accident. Several countries, France and Australia being the pioneers, have either enacted laws to make it mandatory for aggregators like Google and Facebook to share advertising revenue with content generators or are thinking along those lines. Google knows, and Facebook and others will soon follow this lead, that it cannot digest the whole advertising pie without having to invest in news gathering or without having to pay entities that do so.

It takes just a few clicks to upload ready-made content on an aggregator site. But it takes massive investment, the toil of many reporters, the intelligence of many editors and the mind of many designers to make that content ready for publication. News content generators should receive a justifiable share of the revenue generated when aggregators get readers and advertising revenue by carrying this content. It will not suffice to claim that they are giving the content a wider reach through their captive and registered users. Since the Indian media is huge in size and content is generated in many languages and these aggregators carry it in almost all languages on their platforms, India should be included in the list of countries where aggregators will pay for content, and at the earliest.

And what is with this high-quality content thing? Aggregators have a screening policy in place through which they select publications and then select the content they carry. In that sense, it is already high quality. Hence, instead of trying to create confusion, aggregators must pay for all content that they carry on their platforms. Obviously, the terms will vary according to the engagement the content receives but there should be a base rate of payment and bonuses if it goes viral. Aggregators must realize that they cannot get everything for free. If they do not, then the government should follow other countries and make it mandatory for them to pay content generators by enacting a law and enforcing it strictly. News media is under tremendous pressure. While costs have escalated, revenue has dipped. The pandemic has worsened the situation. Internet companies that generate huge revenue by carrying content generated by media companies must share it with them.

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