In the 17th and 18th century, the Age of enlightenment, intellectual interchange of topics of public interest, like social developments and science, became an important achievement. Throughout the centuries, people were fighting for its preservation and broadening to other fields. The driving forces were opposition to “superstition, intolerance and some abuses by church and state” (Wikipedia). Let me update this list and add “abuses by (online) corporations” , to make it more current. The Freedom of the press as well as the Freedom of speech are crucial measures to keep this achievement.
The rise of the Internet fits perfectly into this concept. Potentially everybody can reach a huge audience. But it quickly turned out, that professional journalists can do the job much better, than average people (like me). Skillful writing abilities, careful investigtion of the background, and statements based on facts are required to inform the public properly, in order e.g. to cause the dismissal of corrupt members of parliament or ministers, report about environmental hazards, or provide information about wrong developments. We need these journalists more urgent than ever and we must pay them properly. I have subscriptions of two Austrian quality newspapers, even though I don’t have enough time to read most of their articles.
News aggregators like Google news are taking articles from online newspapers, without paying for the content, shifting online traffic from newspapers to Google. Protests came from Brazil, Great Britain, and others. Imagine what happens to a single newspaper, if Google reacts on its protest and kicks it out of its search engine results. At least it’s online appearance becomes virtually invisible. If most newspapers from a region join together, like the ones from Brazil’s National Association of Newspapers, they could undermine Google’s divide and conquer strategy.
Many news publishers around the world sell their newspapers via a specific App for Apple or Android phones and tablet computers, some of them like newspaperdirect for many newspapers in parallel. Apple and Google are just involved in the distribution of the App and content is taken directly from the publisher’s servers.
But there are more and more publishers, who devote their online content entirely to Apple and sell it directly via Apple’s iTunes. Plans for that exist for several years and since October 2011 there is a new Apple iOS application (impossible to un-install) called Newsstand. It seems to be a big success. Apple takes a 30 percent cut on all newspaper sales.
If this distribution model takes over a significant share of the newspaper market, this is the end of free press. Then the online giant Apple can not only control distribution and earn much money, they can put pressure on the content of the publication. There is a conflict of interest: Free speech (customers) and making money (Apple). Critical journalists won’t survive long, when the Apple guidelines apply, making them changing their opinions. There is a history of Apple regarding other iTunes content, which I call censorship.
The online giants, including Facebook and Twitter, live on the input of people. Their assets are entirely produced by their users. They provide a fantastic and very expensive infrastructure apparently for free, but cannibalize your content and abuse it for their own interests. At least institutions payed by the taxpayer should be forced, not to produce value for them. This happened to the Austrian National Broadcasting (ORF). I support this prohibition of social media activities, but several shortsighted politicians do not (Brosz, Cap).
So what is the solution for this online dilemma? Firstly, publish online on servers under your control. This applies equally to people and institutions. Secondly, create standards and rules for online publications, that guarantee freedom of speech and fair payments for journalists and control it by independent institutions.
