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All,
I am writing to make you aware of stories and opinion pieces generated by the News Media Alliance that speak to our industry’s relationship with tech companies. NMA has been speaking to The New York Times and submitted an op-ed piece to the Wall Street Journal that ran this morning.
NMA CEO David Chavern is staking out the position that news companies need a “safe harbor” to interact with Google and Facebook and create a negotiating space for local news to flourish. Chavern has been aggressive in framing the issue as “us vs. them,” pitting the news industry against the “duopoloy” of Facebook and Google.
In doing this, Chavern purports to speak on behalf of our industry – including many of the companies who have built the Local Media Consortium and who you represent as Joint Steering Committee members.
I want to submit these three points for consideration:
First, Chavern’s position ignores the LMC’s work during the last four years forging partnerships essential to us as providers of quality local content and local business solutions. Those partnerships align the news industry – print, broadcast and ultimately digital – with tech companies in a symbiotic relationship. The LMC has provided revenue opportunities for all levels of local media – and we’ve done that while leveraging our scale to garner both the attention and respect of the tech platforms. We have built partnerships based on shared value, not entitlement.
Second, I am concerned about the mixed messages the NMA’s stance is creating within the industry and our own LMC membership. The NMA board includes several members of the LMC, and these board members may not be fully aware of our relationship with tech companies. Chavern’s op-ed suggests a lack of knowledge of the tens of millions of dollars our partnership with Google has netted the industry, or the inroads we have made influencing innovation with Google, Facebook, Apple and Yahoo.
Finally, and most importantly, I fear these mixed messages will have a chilling effect on our relationships both with our existing partners and those on deck, including Facebook, Apple and Amazon. Our partners may look at these messages as the protectionist reaction of an industry that lacks cohesion.
That’s not what we’ve built as the LMC. That’s not who we are. Our success is in the success of our members. We face Google, Facebook, Apple and the broader tech industry as partners, not adversaries. We are confident of our value, and the value we bring to our tech partners. That value is all the safe harbor we need.
As always, please reach out to me or members of the Executive Committee with feedback.
Many thanks,
Rusty Coats
rusty@coats2coats.com
813.277.8959 | @coats2coats
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