Newspaper publishers see themselves economically strengthened by the new ancillary copyright for their journalistic content on external platforms. The president of the German Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV), Mathias Dopfner, said on Thursday at the publishers’ congress "beBeta", an overall trend is becoming apparent: "The headwind of the platforms becomes the tailwind of the publishers."
Days ago, a rough part of the copyright reform came into force, in which also the ancillary copyright for publishers is foreseen. Now a legal framework is in place that allows publishers to introduce paid content in a copy-protection-proof manner, said Dopfner, who is also CEO of the Axel Springer media group (Image, World) is. It would also ensure that platforms have to pay publishers if they want to use content.
One billion euros of exploitation lottery tickets
According to Dopfner, initial estimates from the collecting society Corint Media are that it could generate more than a billion euros in exploitation revenue per year from social media and search engines alone and redistribute it to publishers. Corint Media is one of several collecting societies in Germany. According to its own information, it represents media companies, including TV stations, radio programs and press publishers.
At the congress, it became clear that the concrete form of the ancillary copyright still has to be sounded out. BDZV Vice President Thomas Duffert, referring to the collecting society Corint Media, said that its idea was the right one: "Publishers must join forces so that they can speak with a strong voice against the rough platforms. Duffert, who is also Chairman of the Executive Board of the Madsack Media Group with numerous regional titles in its portfolio, also emphasized the importance of quality journalism. "If we want journalism to make an indispensable contribution to the functioning of a democratic society, we must also align the reward mechanisms accordingly."
Duffert sees a form of "mismanagement", if almost all exploitation lots are to be distributed according to clicks and visits. He appealed to move the "slider a little away from reach, more towards the journalism that is important for us as a democracy" important for us as a democracy. Duffert emphasized that care must be taken to reward journalism, which is indispensable to society, via ancillary copyright. It had recently become known that the Madsack Media Group wanted to take precautionary measures to discontinue its cooperation with the collecting society.