That's hardly surprising in the wake of Meta's overall pivot away from news content, but it's another blow to media organizations, many of which are already struggling to sustain relevance-or revenue-within an increasingly changed online media landscape.

Today, Meta announced it is ending its payments to Australian news outlets as part of its overall pivot away from news content.

Meta says:

In early April 2024, we'll start to sunset Facebook News - a dedicated tab within the bookmarks section on Facebook where news is front and center - in the US and Australia [.] This is all part of an ongoing effort to better align our investments with our products and services people value the most.". As a business, we need to prioritize our time and dollars towards things people say they want to see more of on the service, including short form video.

Meta says use of Facebook News in Australia and the U.S. is now down over 80% from the last year.

Meta says current agreements will be respected, but it will not make new payment deals with Australian publishers.

"While we'll be deprecating Facebook News in those countries, this announcement doesn't affect the terms of our existing deals with publishers under our Facebook News agreements in Australia, France and Germany. Those deals are expired in the US and the UK.". We will not enter into new commercial agreements for our traditional news products in these countries, and we will not introduce any new Facebook products that are specific to news publishers.

The announcement marked the end of Meta's truce with government officials in Australia over what the government termed "fair payment" for the use of news content.
Australia's "News Media Bargaining Code" made global headlines after failed negotiations with Meta led to blocked content on Facebook and Instagram from all Australian publishers in 2021.

After a short but intense renegotiation, Meta relented to remove the ban and agreed to pay Australian publishers a lesser amount for use of their news content. But this standoff raised more questions about the power that Facebook wields within the broader publishing landscape, and how much it actually needs, or doesn't need, local news content.

Meta has long said that news content makes up a very small percentage of its service-in today's announcement, Meta again declared that news makes up less than 3% of what people see around the world in their Facebook feed-and now clearly, less so than at any point in recent memory, probably part of why Meta's pulling out of its previous news org deals altogether.

Which, as noted, is hardly a surprise.

Last week, responding to reports that Indonesia also is exploring laws to compel Meta to pay local publishers for the use of news content, I wrote that:
"Ultimately, Meta misstepped by negotiating with Australian regulators, and accepting a watered-down version of that nation's revenue share proposal, because that opened the door for others to enact the same."

Meta should never have agreed to negotiate at all, as the fact that it caved in and agreed to share any revenue with local media organizations only sets the stage for other regions to think up their own proposals along similar lines.

Media companies making such appeals have been attempting to prop their arguments on a misconception of the market dynamics all along. It is not Meta that needs this content, but the businesses benefitting from extended distribution through Meta's apps.
And now, as Zuck and Co. look to take more definitive steps to distance themselves from news content, they need such less than ever.

Here's the evidence. Meta stopped showing content from Canadian publishers in its apps as of August 1st last year.
Usage in the North American region actually increased during that time, despite not showing any content from a Canadian publisher even once during it.

Meta is also now overtly working to suppress discussion of news on Threads, although it has been subtly trying to get there on its other apps.

A.I.-recommended Reels have accounted for virtually all its engagement gains over the past two years - short videos that take into account the user's interest rather than just the Pages followed, and it has been a winning strategy as well as a lever to step away from divisive posts.".

And now it's no longer a matter of theory-the question about whether Meta can survive without news content is definitively proved, and what's more, this leaves publishers and, indeed, governments as representatives of their interests in a much worse bargaining position.

So while the Australian Government might in fact lean on Meta to do so, and seems set to hold it to the rules of the News Media Bargoning Code (and apparently, it is planning to), Meta knows that it can simply block publishers with minimal impact.

Essentially, Meta will not pay. And now Australia's authorities will have to decide whether publishers can stomach what they have, or should force Meta to seal off the last spurts of referral traffic that its apps still send their way.