<story><title>Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook</title><url>https://www.axios.com/1-local-newspapers-lawsuits-facebook-google-3c3dee3a-cce3-49ef-b0a2-7a98c2e15c91.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gerash</author><text>The most important factor is that on the internet local news media lose their geographical monopoly. So everyone can subscribe to NYT or WSJ no matter where they live. This effectively creates a winner takes all situation like in many other industries which get closer to a free market.&lt;p&gt;Add to that the fact that classified ads have been taken over by likes of ebay, LinkedIn, craigslist, etc. Basically the business model of the old newspapers have been disrupted and trying to blame it on popular targets like Google and FB is pointless.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alex_young</author><text>&amp;gt; ...local news media lose their geographical monopoly&lt;p&gt;I realize what you&amp;#x27;re saying, but really, local news will always have a geographical monopoly.&lt;p&gt;Can the NYTimes or WSJ even think about covering local issues?  How will investigative reporting function for say a local office holder or a local environmental problem?&lt;p&gt;To my knowledge the real problem is that the traditional business model supporting reporting has dried up.  Running classified ads or selling marketing inserts is an obsolete practice.  This doesn&amp;#x27;t really change the need for local reporting though.</text></comment>
<story><title>Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook</title><url>https://www.axios.com/1-local-newspapers-lawsuits-facebook-google-3c3dee3a-cce3-49ef-b0a2-7a98c2e15c91.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gerash</author><text>The most important factor is that on the internet local news media lose their geographical monopoly. So everyone can subscribe to NYT or WSJ no matter where they live. This effectively creates a winner takes all situation like in many other industries which get closer to a free market.&lt;p&gt;Add to that the fact that classified ads have been taken over by likes of ebay, LinkedIn, craigslist, etc. Basically the business model of the old newspapers have been disrupted and trying to blame it on popular targets like Google and FB is pointless.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>netcan</author><text>I agree with most of this, but I suggest a 2nd look at the concept of free market. Free from what? Geographic locality? It&amp;#x27;s notable that Adam Smith&amp;#x27;s free market seems to have been free also of monopolies and cartels.&lt;p&gt;In any case, whether an open internet would have resulted in newspapers&amp;#x27; bankruptcy is speculative... even though I share your speculation. What actually happened was that FB &amp;amp; google achieved control over who sees what on the internet, who earns ad revenue and how much. That is how their business models actually died. It makes sense to sue, lobby, beg or otherwise try to get what you can from them. There is no market, just them.&lt;p&gt;Maybe it would have happened anyway in a free market, but it didn&amp;#x27;t happen that way. What happened was that big tech took over content delivery and online advertising.</text></comment>