Media meltdown
This week saw even more pain for the struggling media industry, criticism of Big Tech's treatment of news and a Biden-Trump clash on the debate stage. Is it 2016 all over again?
It was fitting that a week in media and politics dominated by Julian Assange’s return and the continued fallout from Meta’s decision to abandon deals with local publishers culminated with a debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump that is being widely viewed as disastrous for the incumbent.
After all, it was the shock of Trump’s election back in 2016 that heaped pressure on Meta, then known as Facebook, over its handling of news and political content and the rampant misinformation on its platforms.
It’s not hard to follow that trail of falling dominoes to where we are right now, with Meta now attempting to get out of the news game altogether. Its exit is wreaking havoc on the traffic numbers of many publishers and blowing a multimillion-dollar-sized hole in the budgets of Australian media companies that had deals in place with it under government legislation.
Nine’s Mike Sneesby and News Corp’s Michael Miller both warned at parliamentary hearings during the week that journalist jobs could be on the line as a result of Meta’s move. It seems Sneesby had a clearer picture of that subject than he was letting on, as he announced to staff today that 200 jobs were headed for the chopping block.
