“However, the Ministry of Culture and Heritage is considering options to support New Zealand’s media companies in reaching commercial agreements with digital platforms if financial compensation is not materialized in the current negotiations.”
Shined Boucher, CEO and owner of publishing company Stuff, said a commercial deal with technology giants would give the sector enough money to make it prosper in the long run.
“We supported the collective approach because the imbalance in the negotiations was so great between platforms and individuals – and there was no legislation in New Zealand as in Australia – that one could try to correct it,” Boucher said. Previously, the material belonged to Fairfax Media (now Nine Entertainment Co, publisher of this must-have). It was sold by Boucher in early 2020.
Boucher said the group expects about New Zealand $ 40 million – a comparable payout to the $ 200 million provided to Australian news publishers by technology giants during lengthy talks last year.
«[Former ACCC chair Rod Sims] said two months ago that north of $ 200 million was provided by platforms for Australian news media. If you divide that by the population of New Zealand, you get about $ 40 million – it’s a really serious injection into the sector, and it will make a big difference, “she said.
Yants conducted multimillion-dollar negotiations on behalf of the Nine publishing group, which includes Sydney Morning Herald and Age. Yantz and Eisman, former heads of Nine’s subscription and growth department, also worked closely with the competition regulator to help introduce federal laws negotiating with the media to ensure deals could be made.
Profits of the publishing division before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased by 39 percent to $ 27 million for the first half of the year, taking into account the money received from the two transactions. Nine said it expects publishing EBITDA to grow by more than $ 55 million over fiscal 2022.
New Zealand’s media have been trying for months to get permission to trade to pay for their content. But pending permission, media company NZME withdrew from the group, announcing it had signed a letter of intent with Google. It is the only large company in New Zealand that does this. Boucher said her discussions so far have been “far from satisfactory.”
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https://www.watoday.com.au/business/companies/nz-publishers-recruit-former-nine-execs-to-lead-tech-talks-20220520-p5an71.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed
