Episode 42: Journalism Competition and Preservation Act & Search Engines

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (S.673) aims to create a model of monetization for publishers for when their content is taken by search engines. Recently, the Amy Klobuchar sponsored senate bill has been making headlines again after recent revisions. While the bill covers print, broadcast, and digital news companies, as a digital marketing agency we have our attention on how this will affect search results and digital advertising. Google and other search engines, as well as some of the big platforms like Facebook, all aggregate news. This gives them a nearly endless source of great content that they can monetize through advertising. In recent years Google has made changes that aims to keep you on their platform rather than taking you to a publisher’s web site. While this is great for Google, and is arguably a better user experience, many search queries that would have driven advertising dollars to smaller publishers have been lost to rich results and other Google search features. Bill S.673 would make sure smaller publishers are getting paid too. If this bill passes, don’t expect the effects to stop with Google. Facebook and TikTok have also implemented nefarious tactics to keep users on their platforms.  It is said that they hired psychologists to figure out how they can hack the brain. Their goal was allegedly to elicit more dopamine release in order to keep people on their platforms longer. This has also made headlines and would likely get a similar treatment. This could be the start of long overdue change that will create a level playing field online. 

In this week’s Digital Marketing Mondays Hans and Devin explain the potential effects the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (S.673) will have on advertising and Google.