 Thank you. We'll request everyone to kindly settle down as we are all set for our next session Which is an expert keynote presentation by Owen Meredith Owen is the chief executive of the news media association in the United Kingdom Representing around 900 local regional and national newspaper titles. He has extensive experience working across the UK media sector He will present on the latest developments in the UK regulatory landscape affecting the relationship between news publishers and tech platforms Ladies and gentlemen, we are all set to invite him on stage Can we have a round of applause for Mr. Owen Meredith to present his session? Good afternoon, and thank you so much for inviting me here It's my first time in Delhi and in fact my first time in India for that matter And it's a great pleasure to be here at the DMPA e4m future of digital media conference I'm the chief exec as I was introduced of the news media association in the UK Which is an umbrella body which represents? Let's see if the clicker works for the slide There you go so So it's an umbrella body that represents local regional and national publishers and it brought together two predecessor bodies in 2014 First of those the newspaper society Which represented local press and the second the news publisher association which represented the national press This combination is a powerful force in UK lobbying And benefits from the unique relationship that local papers have with local politicians and that the national press have with central government It's a role. I've been in for about 18 months now So I'm relatively new in post but I joined having served Previously for seven years in a similar organization the PPA which represents at the UK magazine sector and there alongside many other challenges We campaigned hard to remove the AT sales tax from the digital versions of print magazines and newspapers Which had always been zero rated as print editions in the UK? This recognized the significant shift in consumption of news and magazines and it's worth about 250 million pounds a Year to the UK publishing industry so before I speak about some Detail of what is happening in the UK in terms of legislation And address the fundamental challenges for publishers in this space especially into in the relationship with tech platforms I thought it would be first helpful to set the scene a little About the UK market particularly for those of you who may not be as familiar So there are currently around 900 news brands published in the UK that covers across local regional and national titles and together they reach 27 million people every day And 43 sorry 47 million people a month That's about 90% of the UK adult population the UK being far smaller than India That is achieved with a wide range of distribution models across all platforms from print to digital All the aimed at giving the public access to much needed trusted news and information Now among those 900 titles there are a wide variety of ownership structures from largely privately owned companies With multiple titles within the group to publicly listed companies through to put small family owned businesses with just one or two titles in their staple But all of those contribute to a diverse and vibrant and plural media scene in the UK And as the main investors in journalism in the UK news brands have a unique role in driving and shaping the news agenda However, like news media across the world the UK marketplace has been grappling with that shift from print to digital Which is called serious disruption of publishers business models And the ability to properly monetize that huge audience growth that I talked about earlier is extremely challenging And that is in large part because digital markets are not functioning properly or fairly And as I was preparing for this conference, I was thinking about how media habits have changed We all we all no doubt know that but I thought back to Sunday mornings at home growing up as a young boy in South Wales Most most weekends would jump in the car with my dad to drive a mile or two Down the road to the local news agents to pick up the Sunday papers multiple sections covering a whole range of topics and Interests and then coming back to the family table to sit down with tea and toast as my dad mum and brothers fought over different sections My mum finding it always particularly amusing that I would read through the appointment section as an aspirational 12 or 13 year old Thinking how I could craft my best application to apply to the board of Tesco BP or some other listed company Of course, we all know that that has now changed those classified adverts have gone from print in many ways And we wrestle with a very different media landscape We all spend far much for far much more time On our phones with digital media that is highly targeted to our own interests Or at least the interest that Google and Facebook think we have and that adds up to a very different battle for attention So no more so than for news publishers who by their nature must cover a vast range of topics And these challenges have been exacerbated over the past two or three years by the COVID pandemic Which other speakers have spoken to but that's really added pressure and strain to existing business models And we heard from Paul Fletcher earlier how that was particularly heartfelt in the Australian Publishing landscape, but we face very similar challenges in the UK both in terms of distribution and a fundamental collapse in advertising revenues Which have essentially become entrenched even as the economy more widely has recovered and that is especially true in the local news media market but There are reasons to be very positive and just yesterday in the UK. We published jikred which is our Audience measurement data showing that audiences continue to flock to local news publishers as a trusted source of news and Information in their local area and that growth is almost entirely online So just looking back to 2017 local news was read by about 22 percent of the population online today that figure it seeds 70 percent and according to a survey by one poll Published last week as well 81 percent of people agree that they trust the news They read in their local newspaper and on their websites and that's a rise of seven percent since 2018 and I think in a world of myths and disinformation online trust in your local paper is a really important and powerful tool that we have So things are going in the right direction and I think that and that trust Is reflected across all age groups and demographics as well Now publishers have responded to the challenging or changing audience habits and news Consumptions with a variety of strategies Such as online subscription models and we've seen strong success On that front from the likes of the times the FT in the telegraph Scaling of mass audience which mail online and the Guardian have done well and building that into international audiences as well and Membership models which have worked particularly well for some local and bespoke titles as well as the Guardian who have successfully built a Revenue bottle based on donations despite having no paywall and content freely being available to all users So there are also innovations such as axate Which aims to monetize content for smaller publishers on the basis of micro payments for individual articles via a digital wallet And we're also seeing as others have just touched on in this panel investment in audio in video newsletters and AI Which I think will all start to bear fruit as part of a blended revenue model as the years go ahead And recently several UK publishers have expanded their overseas operations particularly in the US With investment in newsrooms abroad and I think there's a real appetite for a UK perspective on some global news issues But whilst there is plenty to be positive about and I think we all should be positive I would like to just touch on some of the issues Raised in the Reuters Institute for the study of journalism report last month which highlighted that publishers are Anticipating an extremely difficult year ahead With pressures impacting on all areas of publishers businesses not least with double or triple digit inflation rises In newsprint costs and inflation pushing wages and other costs higher across the board So welcome to it was equally consumers are cutting back on discretion re-spend so that does add up to a real risk for title closures and Almost uniquely in the UK. We have to grapple with aggressive expansion by the BBC as a taxpayer funded Media institution which now dominates online news and is the number one news destination in the UK by some margin They draw eyeballs and ad revenue away from commercial publishers The BBC website in the UK does not carry any advertising and therefore loads much faster And provides a better UX which of course then translates into better search results and search ranking And the BBC has recently announced plans to expand its local news offering even more Which has caused widespread concern among UK publishers and simply just wouldn't be accepted if they were trying to do the Same in the print market, but for some reason while the government gets the fact that readers are moving online It has failed to understand the parallels in this market So I stress the point that the challenge is facing the industry I'm not a problem with audience the demand for journalism has never been greater But it is a problem with monetization largely caused by the stranglehold of the tech platforms So just to demonstrate this the challenge this slide shows The advertising revenue has shifted in the UK market over the last 10 years with a rapid and sustained growth of digital pure play advertising rising Year-on-year as you can see with a sharp rise post pandemic and that's largely going to two or three US tech companies Well, the size of the advertising market for news brands that bottom line has nearly halved in the same period So that is the reality that we're facing into and the challenge that we need to tackle So just before I move on to how I think we're going to tackle it in the UK from a legislative point of view I wanted to briefly share Some highlights here of why audiences are coming to trusted news media sites And they're turning to professional news publishers in times of crisis in particular and we've seen huge audience growth through the pandemic years and that has stuck people who came to us during the pandemic and They're sticking with us and in clearly in the UK We've had a very busy news cycle over the last 12 months not to not least with three prime ministers In a single year and the death of Her Majesty the Queen as well as the ongoing cost of living crisis And while we hear a lot about news fatigue and people actively avoiding news It is simply not reflected in the numbers People turn to us not only for news But as a trusted source of information to and 62 percent of the public believe that journalists play an important role Covering stories such as the cost of living crisis and that's Reflection of both the human side behind the inflation figures and economic numbers Which we hear in the news headlines daily But also as a trusted source of information in their local area Ranging from the cheapest liter of petrol or pint of milk to information on how public sector strikes are affecting train Tiber at tables or access to health care And on the big issues of the day such as climate change eight out ten people believe Established media is driving awareness, which is well ahead of government and social media in the same studies So despite what we sometimes read independent News media is trusted and it's valued by the public like never before and is helping people navigate an increasingly complicated and noisy world especially online So the question which I guess is very much to the heart of this conference is how do we sustain quality journalism for the long term and Maintain that investment in community reporting in investigative journalism and Holding powerful to account in the way that only news media does that is so vital for society and democracy So as I've touched on we've seen audience Audiences move online to access news and even here We've seen a shift in recent years with rapid growth of mobile in the latest audience data Which was published last week. There is an increasing number of people accessing news brands on their phones and tablets Publishers mobile content now reaches 20 million people every day That's 94% of the entire daily reach So nearly everyone who is accessing news is doing so via mobile at least in part and Younger digital native audiences also rely on news brands for trusted information in a crowded attention marketplace with 14 million readers age 15 to 34 across Princeton online news publishers reached 6 million more readers Six million more people than snapchat and five million more than tiktok But the money simply isn't there to sustain this position And as you can see from this slide, there's been such a shift of advertising revenues as one metric of change So 88% of news publishers advertising revenue was derived from print in 2013 Last year that had dropped to 53% and this year We may see digital revenues overtake print advertising for the first time so publishers are competing in the online space We are building digital models that work and that offer Advertises the key audience that they're looking to buy but growth in digital revenues is nowhere near the growth in digital Audiences and falls well short of offsetting the decline in print revenues and the reason we're simply not able to trade on fair terms And with the shift to mobile consumption that entrenched power particularly held by Google and Apple will continue to be there unless something is done So what are we doing To balance to rebalance the system and ensure The online ecosystem can be a viable place for publishers back in 2018 five years ago now the UK government commissioned Dame Francis Ken cross an independent academic to undertake a review into the sustainability of high-quality journalism And the purpose of that review is to examine and make recommendations in four key areas The overall state of the news market the financial stability of the news market the impact of search and social media and the role of digital advertising the Ken cross review concluded and Was published in February 2019 and laid bare the gross imbalance of power between publishers and tech platforms Again, I was struck with the similarities in Paul Fletcher's remarks earlier And I think the problem is clearly globally echoed and well documented And you know these publishers these platforms have a duty to act to ensure the sustainability of a diverse and plural media And they should also see this that's something that is in their commercial interest as it's our publishers content that is driving engagement on those platforms So Ken cross was followed by the Furman review in 2019 that took a wider look at competition in the UK digital market We subsequently had the CMAs digital advertising study which demonstrated the The excess profits that Google and Facebook were earning in the UK ad market and there's been further studies pointing out the consumer harm of the this exploitation and dominant market position And I think that consumer harm point is key as it's been a fundamental basis of discussion with government and that allowed us to move these arguments along So multiple reviews have taken place over many years and all of them have reached the same conclusion that we needed a new regulator in The UK to fix a broken digital marketplace the current system of competition law is simply inadequate ineffective and outdated and Highly-connected rapidly moving digital marketplace and therefore the digital markets unit was born So the DMU as it's known is housed within the UK competition authority It was set up in shadow format in 2021 it has around 40 employees today, but it doesn't yet have the statutory powers it needs to operate So in the NMA we've led the charge lobbying government to bring forward this legislation as a matter of urgency And I'm pleased to say after much delay We expect the bill to be published by the government next week Sorry next month not next week too optimistic So with statutory powers the DMU should be able to tackle the serious problems created by the tech giant stranglehold in the digital advertising and wider ecosystem and this will be achieved by Enforceable codes of conduct governing the relationship between online platforms and the businesses who rely on them, especially news publishers The first task the DMU will have once that legislation is passed is determine determining which platforms have so-called strategic market status and Designate them as such in order to do this. They have to address three questions. The first is this is whether The platform has substantial market power, which is effectively whether there is any Whether there's a lack of alternative providers of that service and whether there's any lack of real threat of competition The second is whether that market power is entrenched meaning the power is expected to persist over time And the third is whether those the combination of those two and qualifying under the first two criteria Gives them a strategic position that in other words a position that affects its market power in the likely to be particularly widespread or significant To assist in that decision-making the DMU will take account of the firm's size and scale In a specific activity and whether the firm is an important access point for consumers There'll also be a minimum revenue threshold which has yet to be set and will be set in legislation So that smaller startups or others in new areas will be out of scope Even if they have the potential to become dominant until they have reached such scale Now while we're not yet certain There will no doubt be plenty of wrangling over this as there always is when these companies are concerned But we expect Google Facebook and Apple to easily meet those criteria and be quickly designated And potentially others like YouTube and Spotify who will meet those tests quickly follow And once it's only once a platform has been designated Unlike the Australian model that the this regime will kick in and The the DMU will be given the discretion to decide where in which areas it wishes to act first It won't be directed by Parliament to do so We believe that the relationship between publishers and platforms will be one of their first priorities not least because of part of the consultation process They've specifically looked at that relationship and in their advice to government the two regulators said this would provide one of the examples Of how a proposed new regime curbing the power of tech platforms could work in practice So as part of the DMU regime we expect legislation To confirm that platforms will be instructed to negotiate for payment for content with news publishers And I think there are lessons we can learn as we've heard Different points today around the world where this is happening when working and where it's not And I am most keen to ensure that a bargaining code allows for smaller independent publishers to get a fair deal We do not want a system as some have suggested which determines a pot of money The platforms owe us then leaves the industry to fight it out over who gets what share of that pie It is not for the state either in legislation or through regulators to discerning price or commercial terms So the way the regime is envisaged to work is not rigid legislation But codes of conduct which the regulator would set out would be specific to individual platforms Unlike the EU model which is more broad and it would mean those big tech firms that have Designated status will be subject to a code and would have to agree fair reasonable terms for news publishers content And it's not solely about money It's intended to be a broader regime which can addresses concerns on transparency of algorithms Gives publishers appropriate control over the presentation and branding of their content on platforms Improves practices around sharing of data between platforms And redresses the imbalance of bargaining power So under the UK proposals the code would consist of a set of legally binding obligations on the tech firms And There will be a backstop power to impose Final binding final offer arbitration. So I say again, this is not about special pleading for publishers It's about creating a level playing field for both parties publishers and platforms with information to facilitate fair commercial negotiations So I'm nearly coming to the end. I'm I think I'm on time but So putting the problem into context the NMA commissions a study by leading academic from Cambridge University published last May That found that the British publishers content generated approximately a billion pounds in UK revenues for Google and Facebook a Number that dwarfs by miles their contribution Back to the industry this work drew on previous studies including colleagues in the US as well as new analysis to look at the Main ways in which Publishes content including the data behind it Contribute to the revenues specifically of Google and Facebook This is not designed to be a figure that suggests that those two platforms OS a billion pounds But it's simply a matter of Defining what the value of news content is to platforms and in order to start commercial negotiations The study itself highlights the lack of transparency and data available to publishers on how their content is used Displayed and engaged with on these platforms and in part that is why a new regime goes beyond payment for content Or a bargaining power and sets rules for greater transparency We believe that the new regime in the UK will provide the tools to drive fair negotiations between news publishers And the platforms on which they depend by enforcing greater fairness transparency In the relationship upfront clarity on what is acceptable will help guide platforms and preempts or allow swift action to address practices that cause harm So before I close I Just wanted to reflect that I don't believe this new competition regime is a silver bullet to fix all the challenges We face as a news media industry. This is an essential part of the toolkit Yes, and as I said it open publishes embracing new ways of working to drive new revenues Those will take time to pay off But the future will likely require mixed revenue models that draw on multiple revenue sources to fund investment in quality journalism Publishes serving audiences in different ways with news information and entertainment combined So in closing I just want to come back to this slide once again, which I showed earlier I think the business model of news has to change as audience needs and behaviors have changed We are reaching more people than ever before But we are reaching them in new ways That is a good thing but to continue investing in quality trusted journalism the rules of the game need to change And I hope that is what we can achieve. Thank you Thank you very much Owen our request you to stay with us for just a bit more I believe there's a question for you and the question comes from Ruhay El Amin who's a senior editor of Exchange for Media Group. Yes Ruhay. Hi a wonderful session, you know a lot of important points made one You know, there's a resonance in the room that the model that UK Australia has shown How much can that be replicated in a complex market like India? What's your thought on that? I think I Think it's not necessarily a question of replicating it and certainly we in the UK are looking at the Australian model as part of a Solution but we think that there are things that we want to do differently not least that the codes would apply and you would Designated whereas from Paul's presentation earlier. I think Australia hasn't actually designated anybody yet So I think there there are lessons to be learned and I wouldn't prevent to be an expert on the Indian market at all But I think what is hopefully helpful is as different territories and different Regimes around the world managed to put in place mechanisms that can support publishers and you know particularly now we've got enough time Seeing the Australian system roll out and how effective it has been it's about learning lessons and applying those in different markets Reflecting local factors. So I don't think it's a sort of copy and paste exercise I think there will be different solutions depending on the market But hopefully by getting this right in certain places there can be lessons learned Thank you very much. I hope that answers your question and while you get your question answer Can I please also request you here on stage to present a moment here to Owen and ladies and gentlemen? Let's have a round of applause. Thank you very much one for your presentation and for taking us through an in-depth Knowledge about the subject that was discussed here or the topic that was discussed here Ladies and gentlemen be kind with your applause, please come on everyone That's Owen Meredith right here for us Thank you once again