Episode 70: "It's Massive Free Distribution" - Village Media's Jeff Elgie on Why His Company Opposes Lobbying Efforts to Establish a Licence for Linking to News Stories

October 28, 2021 00:39:00
Episode 70: "It's Massive Free Distribution" - Village Media's Jeff Elgie on Why His Company Opposes Lobbying Efforts to Establish a Licence for Linking to News Stories
Law Bytes
Episode 70: "It's Massive Free Distribution" - Village Media's Jeff Elgie on Why His Company Opposes Lobbying Efforts to Establish a Licence for Linking to News Stories

Oct 28 2021 | 00:39:00

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Show Notes

News Media Canada, the lobby group representing the major newspaper publishers in Canada recently launched a new campaign that calls for the creation of a government digital media regulatory agency that would have the power to establish mandated payments by Internet companies merely for linking to news articles. But not everyone in the sector – or even within News Media Canada – agrees with the position.

Jeff Elgie is the CEO and majority shareholder of Village Media, a digital-only media organization that operates local news and community websites throughout Ontario. He joins the Law Bytes podcast this week to talk about operating local news sites in the current environment, why he welcomes referral traffic from companies like Facebook and Google, and why though he respects News Media Canada, he hopes that a new association will emerge that better represents the diversity of news media in Canada.

The podcast can be downloaded here and is embedded below. Subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify or the RSS feed. Updates on the podcast on Twitter at @Lawbytespod.

Credits:

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