The Facts
Gannett, the largest newspaper chain in the US and owner of USA Today, filed a lawsuit against Google and parent company Alphabet Inc. in Manhattan federal court Tuesday. The suit alleges that Google holds a monopoly over digital ad exchanges and forces publishers to use its own ad-buying and selling service.
The lawsuit claims that while digital advertising became a $200B per year industry last year, news publishers have seen an approximate 70% decline in ad revenue, thus putting journalists out of work and forcing newspapers into bankruptcy.
The Spin
Narrative A
Today, 86% of Americans receive their news online, creating a $200B ad market. However, through its deceitful and monopolistic tactics, Google has destroyed the economic competition among newspapers by vying for ad space — which bankrupts smaller outlets that people love and rely on. Beyond the simple anti-trust component of this case, Google must face legal repercussions to ensure it ends its profit-driven crusade to wipe local news off the face of the internet.
Narrative B
First and foremost, Google's so-called monopoly on the digital ad space dropped from a minority stake of 31.6% in 2019 to an even smaller minority stake of 26.4% in 2022. Furthermore, Google does not compete with or disadvantage traditional print forms of media, which contradicts the idea that it controls the entire newspaper industry. The lawsuits filed by both governments and industry competitors have blown Google's online power way out of proportion.