(Image: Private Media/Zennie)
(Image: Private Media/Zennie)

Dear Crikey readers,

By now you will know that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, will stop paying publishers for news and shut down its news tab in Australia next month. Facebook (and Google) signed multimillion-dollar deals with publishers in 2021 to dodge negotiating for content under Australia’s news media bargaining code.

Now, as expected, the tech giant is backing out. The code was fundamentally and functionally clumsy, but this change is another blow for publishers big (like Nine and Guardian Australia) and small (like Crikey) that funded journalism with Meta’s cash. 

There’s a fair bit of self-interest and conflict of interest being served up by the media over the role of tech giants in funding journalism.