Publishers and platforms

On November 5th 2020, Kjersti Løken Stavrum (Tinius Trust) and Petra Wikström (Schibsted) discussed the Scandinavian perspective on publishers and platforms, […]

On November 5th 2020, Kjersti Løken Stavrum (Tinius Trust) and Petra Wikström (Schibsted) discussed the Scandinavian perspective on publishers and platforms, during a webinar hosted by The World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

WAN-IFRA raised the question: How can news publishers and platforms share a fair value of content, ad, and data? The answer to that question, according to Stavrum and Wikström, is a level playing field.

Watch a short summary of the discussion below.

Kjersti Løken Stavrum, who led the talk, asked how publishers can secure that the framework for competition is fair.

– It is really a battle of many fronts when it comes to a level playing field in the digital market, Petra Wikström said.

– It is very important to look at the tax issue, but it has to be looked at in a fair way. It must lead to taxation of those companies that really don’t pay tax in our markets today, she said.

Stavrum asked if Wikström could give an example of unfair competition between publishers and platforms. Wikström then explained how Apple take control over the relationship between publishers and their customers.

– The problem is that we have to use Apples own payment system, we can’t offer credit cards or other payment systems. And when we do that, we are obliged to pay 30 % to Apple of the revenue that we make. In addition, we lose the customer relationship, Wikström said.

– I would say that it is probably one of the most important issues that we are working on in our policy team at the moment.

Stavrum ended the talk with the question: Are you optimistic?

There is a need for regulation of these big gatekeepers that don’t allow us to get access to data, that don’t give us transparency about impact of algorithms and do not allow us to negotiate. We have to get that regulation right and if we do, I think that we can really succeed, Wikström said.

See all events by WAN-IFRA or read more about the organization here.