Country Press Australia signs Letter of Intent with Facebook
Country Press Australia (CPA) has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Facebook, just a day after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued a draft determination proposing to authorise CPA and its members to collectively negotiate with Facebook and Google over payments for news content that appears on respective platforms.
CPA were given interim approval by the ACCC in April and acted under that authorisation, according to a spokesperson from the ACCC.
CPA currently represents 81 news publishers which publish 160 regional newspapers across Australia, providing local and independent news to regional communities in print and online.
The LOI, subject to signing a long-form agreement between the two entities, is a multi-year agreement to provide an innovation fund to support newsroom sustainability and digital transformation. The proposed authorisation is for a period of ten years.
CPA president, Andrew Manuel, said the funding provided by Facebook under this agreement, would help sustain original public interest journalism in the multitude of regional and local communities serviced by CPA members.
Manuel thanked Facebook and its negotiating team for the constructive discussions over many meetings that lead to today’s announcement.
Members of the CPA
“This funding support will help CPA’s members build their digital businesses and reach new audiences. It’s part of our continuing investment in Australian journalism and our collaboration with the news industry to build sustainable business models. We’re pleased to reach this agreement with CPA because it furthers our work with small rural newsrooms,” said Andrew Hunter, news partnership lead, Facebook Australia and New Zealand.
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Olivia Kruimel is the managing editor at Mumbrella. She has more than 15 years of experience in journalism, communications and marketing. Her journalism career began at Fairfax Media (now part of Nine) and includes various B2B publications such as B&T, Travel Today and ALB. As a marketer Olivia has worked for Standard Chartered and various global law firms.
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