Robert Thompson, CEO of News Corp. A few weeks after a new media law was passed in Australia, Facebook and the News Corp group founded by Murdoch agreed to payments for press content from the media company. Photo: Mark Lennihan / AP / dpa
Sydney (Associated Press) – A few weeks after the new media law was passed in Australia, Facebook and the News Corp group founded by Rupert Murdoch agreed on payments for the media company’s press content.
It is a “multi-year agreement to give millions of Facebook users in Australia access to news and reliable information through the Facebook News product,” a statement said. News Corp. reported that the deal initially starts for a period of three years and includes “The Australian” and the news portal “news.com.au”.
“The agreement with Facebook is a milestone in shaping the journalism framework and will have a significant and significant impact on our Australian news business,” said Robert Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of News Corp. “Mark Zuckerberg and his team deserve recognition for their role in shaping a future for journalism that has been under intense pressure for more than a decade.” The precise details of the agreement were not known at first.
Australia passed the controversial law at the end of February after a long-running dispute with Facebook and initially with Google. The government wants to achieve more equitable advertising revenue distribution in the future.
Google already surrendered a tug of war with Canberra in February and agreed to payments for press content with several media companies, including News Corp. On the other hand, Facebook has escalated the controversy and temporarily banned news pages on its platform for Australian users. In the end, the internet giant reached an agreement after long negotiations with the government.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210316-99-839988 / 2
