The Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, of which I’m a board member, was engaged in several critical pieces of legislation this past session at the statehouse in Salem.
Two pieces of legislation were especially important – SB686 and SB437.
SB686 was the “Big Tech” bill, and The Chronicle joined more than 50 other newspapers in the state supporting its passage and publishing a group editorial in June. An excerpt:
Companies like Google and Meta have built vast empires by monetizing journalism —scraping our content, summarizing our reporting, and embedding our photography — without fair compensation to the publishers and journalists who create it.
This is not a theoretical concern. AI-generated search results now restate and republish our work, often using our own images, while reducing our original reporting to mere citations. These practices siphon away the audience engagement and advertising revenue that once supported robust local newsrooms. The result? Fewer reporters, fewer investigations, and fewer watchdogs in our communities.
SB686 has no fiscal impact on the state, yet it offers a fair and forward-thinking solution to preserve – and quite possibly increase – resources dedicated to quality journalism and reporting in Oregon.
It is not a tax or a subsidy. It is a mechanism to ensure that those who profit from journalistic content contribute to its creation. The bill proposes direct compensation to news organizations through arbitration or a research-backed fund, with 90% of proceeds going directly to publishers and 10% supporting innovation and equity in Oregon’s media ecosystem.
SB686 ensures that Big Tech innovates responsibly — by paying fairly for the value it derives from local journalism.
The bill failed to pass the Senate by one vote.
SB437 sought to lower the guardrails that are in place to ensure the accuracy, credibility, and archiving of Legal Notices. There already is a path for online-only news and information businesses who want to publish Legal Notices.
This bill never received any traction, in part because of how poorly it was writte.
– Noel Nash is co-owner and publisher of The Chronicle.
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