Rupert Murdoch Is Not Pleased With Mark Zuckerberg

Medial mogul thinks Facebook ought to start paying for news content
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 22, 2018 5:10 PM CST
Rupert Murdoch Is Not Pleased With Mark Zuckerberg
Fox News chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch.   (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch says Facebook should pay fees to "trusted" news producers for their content. Facebook said last week that it will boost news sources that its users rank as most trustworthy, while shrinking the percentage of news posts overall in users' news feeds. Murdoch, whose companies own the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, the New York Post, and other media properties, said Monday that publishers are "enhancing the value and integrity of Facebook through their news and content but are not being adequately rewarded for those services." His full statement is here.

Murdoch has previously criticized Google for the "theft" of news stories without payment, per the AP. The news industry has struggled as print advertising erodes. Online, meanwhile, Facebook and Google dominate, together taking nearly half of global digital ad revenue, according to eMarketer. At TechCrunch, a post by Jordan Crook is critical of Murdoch's proposal, calling it more "mudslinging than muckraking." He adds: "We’re not saying Facebook shouldn’t be paying somebody something, but this isn’t a realistic solution and I don’t think Murdoch really believes it is either."

(More Facebook stories.)

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