Stop whining about Facebook and Google and learn from them, media companies told

Tim Burrowes

July 26, 2017 9:22

Traditional media companies need to stop “whining” about the rise of Google and Facebook and accept that they were out-competed, one of the world’s leading media observers has suggested.

Jeff Jarvis, professor at City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism, was in Australia to mark the launch of UTS’s new Centre for Media Transition.

Jarvis: “Whining and complaining” will not make Google and Facebook go away

Asked about whether Google and Facebook should face a tax on their profits to fund public interest journalism, Jarvis, author of the book What Would Google Do?, argued that media players should be seeking to learn from the digital behemoths, but not blame them for their falling revenues.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.