News Corp reaches Facebook pay deal for Australian news Britain Sky News Australia Apple Google New York
Juan J. Monroe 
News Corp and Facebook reached news compensation deals in Australia three weeks after the government passed laws that would force the digital giants to cover the costs of journalism.
The New York-based news firm, which operates primarily in the United States, Britain and Australia, said on Tuesday it had reached a multi-year deal with Facebook that covers its top Australian mastheads as well as regional publications. .
The compensation deal follows a similar agreement reached with Google last month.
Sky News Australia, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, has also entered into a new agreement that extends and builds on an existing Facebook agreement, according to a statement from News Corp.
The deal follows a 2019 deal in which News Corp’s U.S. publications receive payment for accessing stories through Facebook News.
“The deal with Facebook is a milestone in transforming the terms of trade for journalism, and will have a material and significant impact on our Australian news businesses,” News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson said.
Andrew Hunter, head of Facebook news partnerships in Australia and New Zealand, said the deals with News Corp Australia and Sky News Australia “mean Facebook users will have access to premium news articles and breaking news videos from News Corp.’s national, metropolitan, rural and suburban newsrooms.
Thomson thanked the Australian government for “taking a principled stance for publishers” through its laws that could force Facebook and Google to pay for news content accessed through their platforms if the two gateways to the internet fail. fail to reach fair agreements.
News Corp has now struck compensation deals with Facebook, Google and Apple to provide access to journalism.
Google was quicker than Facebook to strike deals with Australian news companies as digital platform laws made their way through parliamentary processes.
Seven West Media is the only other major Australian media organization to have announced a pay deal with Facebook.
Facebook announced preliminary compensation deals with independent news outlets Private Media, Schwartz Media and Solstice Media a day after the laws were passed by parliament last month.
