How Google and Facebook are killing local news
The Competition Commission is probing how online news is affected by chatbots, search and ad technology. The outcome is important for the future of news reporting
07 March 2024 - 13:34
Only a few decades ago, if you wanted to read the news, someone in your household paid for a newspaper. Running a printed newspaper, with journalists who went out daily to report stories, was a sustainable business.
There were four main revenue sources: subscriptions, sales of individual copies, adverts and classifieds. The main barrier to entry was the cost of printing. Subscriptions and sales of individual copies were usually meant to cover this, but the real money was advertising — and for some publications, like the Cape Argus in Cape Town, the classifieds...
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