EDITORIAL: Tech must be made to pay for newsIn a research report published earlier this year, a National Taiwan University academic issued a “wake-up call” about the state of the news media’s dwindling revenues. By contrast, 2020 saw NT$48.26 billion of online media ad volume, creating what Lin called an “avalanche of losses” for newspapers. News remuneration legislation is favored by many governments, starting with the European Copyright Directive passed by the EU in 2019, requiring platforms to pay publishers for content aggregated on their sites. Google especially has complied with the rules wherever necessary, signing deals with hundreds of media companies to pay for rights to display their news content. It is only fair that tech giants share their spoils, which hopefully would be the first step toward reinvigorating a stagnant industry.
