Amid policy changes at social network, media mogul criticizes it for failing to ‘adequately reward’ publishers that add value and integrity

Rupert Murdoch issued a new salvo in the row between Facebook and news publishers on Monday, calling on the social media company to pay publishers for their content.

“If Facebook wants to recognize ‘trusted’ publishers then it should pay those publishers a carriage fee similar to the model adopted by cable companies,” the News Corp chairman said in a statement. “The publishers are obviously enhancing the value and integrity of Facebook through their news and content but are not being adequately rewarded for those services.”

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Murdoch’s statement follows a pair of policy changes from Facebook that will probably have a significant impact on publishers. On Friday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would begin prioritizing news outlets based on how “trustworthy” they are, with trustworthiness scores determined by user feedback on the site. Zuckerberg also said that the amount of news users see on their news feed will be reduced by 20%.

Murdoch blamed Facebook and Google for popularizing “scurrilous news sources” through algorithms that are “inherently unreliable”, and called the solutions they have put forward thus far “inadequate”.

“I have yet to see a proposal that truly recognizes the investment in and the social value of professional journalism,” he said.



Facebook has been struggling for more than a year to address mounting criticism of its role in the dissemination of misinformation and propaganda. With more than 2 billion users, many of whom rely on it for news and information, the site operates as the world’s largest publisher. But Facebook consistently resists being treated as such, avoiding having to make editorial judgments.

For their part, many news organizations are locked into their relationship with Facebook, which can drive enormous traffic to their sites, but captures almost all online advertising revenue for itself.

Murdoch’s media holdings include the Times and the Sun in Britain and the Wall Street Journal. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.