I don’t like talking about competitors, but today one of Radio Free Hub City’s competitors did something so laughable, I just had to write about it. Today Gannett filed a lawsuit against Google for “monopolization of advertising technology markets and deceptive commercial practices”. Gannett of course owns the Herald-Mail, Hagerstown’s newspaper (which is now printed in Frederick). According to the article, originally published in USA Today and many other news outlets, Google’s practices for digital advertising have resulted in a decrease in advertising revenue for publishers, and claims “more than a dozen significantly anticompetitive and deceptive acts by Google”.
Gannett themselves have engaged in their own “monopolization” efforts, with their continued buyout of local newspapers across the United States. This has been absolutely devastating to many local communities, who have seen significantly reduced news coverage as a result. Even worse, this decline in local news can also lead to an increase in local corruption as elected officials and governments no longer have a media watchdog to worry about, unless they do something that could attract the attention of national news media. So while Gannett attacks Google for trying to establish a monopoly in digital advertising, it’s very ironic that Gannett is in the process of trying to establish their own monopoly in local news media.
Even more ironic is Gannett’s statement that “Without free and fair competition for digital ad space, publishers cannot invest in their newsrooms and content, and readers cannot get trusted news at low cost or for free.” Our local Gannett owned newspaper, Herald-Mail, costs $144/year to access articles behind their paywall, which is pretty much all local articles. I would not consider that low cost or free.
And by the way, even Gannett’s own journalists are dissatisfied, with some even recently going on strike, and as the Daily Breeze reported, “Some newspapers have forsaken coverage of local sports or business, the union said. Reporters have had to take on several unrelated beats. Some publications have dropped local news coverage altogether to focus on regional news.”
For many years now, our local community has wept as our local news coverage becomes less and less. Here at RFHC we’re doing what we can to help fix this, but we can only do so much. We are a truly community news outlet, and strive to be a voice for the community – even if that means we don’t make much money. We could put up a paywall, and charge $144/year for access, but then the community wouldn’t have access to the news they need. I’d rather help inform the community, than fleece them for all the money I possibly can.
Local news outlets, do better. Please.
Story by Ken Buckler, President of Radio Free Hub City. All opinions are his own, and do not reflect those of our sponsors.
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