The European Publishers Council’s newly-published Vision Paper appeals to policy makers to take the time to understand what it means to be a journalistically-driven editorial media company today: to help inform fit-for-purpose regulation and to support a healthy, independent media, that is essential for democratic society. The paper outlines the unprecedented challenges; the threats; the opportunities; the innovation; the costs and responsibilities; how digital business models work; the role of professional media in a society increasingly threatened by disinformation and fake news; and the emergence of AI as both friend and foe.
Europe’s news media and publishing sector is diverse, transparent, accountable and highly ethical. It underpins a healthy, informed democracy. Integrity and independence are its core values. The values of a free and independent press remain the drivers for media business leaders and we must be able to compete against companies who prioritise engagement and virality over accuracy, and who are not held to account in the same way as we are. Editorial media serves as a watchdog, holding governments and the powerful to account, providing essential checks and balances in democratic societies.
There is a growing divide between those investing in the creation of accurate information and those focused on securing their position as gatekeepers for the dissemination and monetisation of information. Editorial media can only thrive and remain relevant with sustainable revenues to reinvest in journalism. This means building capacity in advertising as well as the fair remuneration for use of publishers’ content.
The paper provides detailed recommendations on how to bring about balanced regulation to incentivise fair competition, underpinned by innovation in the digital era, but also how to protect the economic and ethical foundations of independent journalism.
Our key points include:
Reform digital advertising practices and a more balanced privacy framework: The dominance of large platforms in digital advertising continues to be harmful to publishers. The paper seeks to reset the ecosystem by advocating for more competition, transparency in advertising, updated privacy rules and measures to combat fraud and news avoidance by advertisers.
Digital Transformation & AI: We emphasise the enormous opportunities AI brings to publishers but also highlights the risks, particularly the ingestion of publishers’ copyrighted content by AI models without permission or compensation. We call for rigorous enforcement of copyright laws and a balanced relationship with large online platforms and AI companies to incentivise licensing.
Crawlers & Copyright Infringement: We raise concerns about web crawlers, which scrape publishers’ content without consent. We call for mandatory rules on Responsible Crawling, requiring transparency from crawlers as to their identity and purpose for crawling, enforcement of copyright protections, and for respect of rights reservations.
AI’s Impact on Journalism: AI can enhance journalism by automating routine tasks to free up the valuable time of journalists and bring about innovation. However, the rise of AI-generated content threatens the sustainability of independent media by diverting traffic from publishers and diminishing their monetisation opportunities. Generative AI companies cannot replace core journalistic values like original reporting, investigative journalism, human insight, and ethical standards.
Disinformation & Fake News: We call for more robust measures against disinformation, harmful content and state sponsored propaganda, recognising the role of human journalists as essential fact-checkers. We stress the need for human oversight in AI processes to combat the escalation of disinformation and fake news.
Recognise the role of journalism in the sustainability of democracy: We urge that the sustainability of democratic systems be included in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) frameworks. We call for recognising traditional media as essential to democracy and for reallocating advertising budgets from VLOPs to high-quality journalism.
Future Regulatory Needs: EPC invites policymakers to work with publishers on the issues of AI, copyright, advertising and data privacy in order to ensure a sustainable future for independent media in Europe. A pause on any new regulations is recommended but any new regulation must be targeted to the problems it is trying to address, avoiding any unintended collateral damage on publishers and the freedom of the press. All new regulations in future should be stress-tested for market impact on the ability of publishers to run their businesses effectively with sustainable revenues from advertising, subscription and licensing to invest in their future.
EPC members are committed to continue investing in the creation of original content and to drive advances in the online news media and publishing sector. We invite policy makers to support a regulatory environment that is strategic and conducive to us carrying out our crucial societal role.
Access here:
the full EPC 2030 Vision Paper - Digital Evolution in Media: Safeguarding Democracy by Investing in Quality Journalism for a Sustainable Future
the Executive Summary and Recommendations