Our Hometown Blog

UPDATE: Lee Wolverton, the Vice President of News and Executive editor at HD Media Co., LLC — the plaintiff in the lawsuit — will be joining the webinar as a special guest panelist!

Our-Hometown is excited to announce that we’ll be hosting a LIVE interview & AMA (Ask Me Anything) event with Paul T. Farrell Jr. of Farrell & Fuller, LLC and Bob Fitzsimmons of Fitzsimmons Law Firm PLLC, two of the legal professionals leading the anti-trust lawsuit against Google and Facebook on behalf of newspapers across the country.

News publishers are invited to join us for this LIVE interview on February 24th at 12pm eastern.

Attendees will be able to watch the live interview and listen in as our guests provide an update on their ongoing efforts against the powerful duopoly of Google & Facebook. At the conclusion of the interview, publishers in attendance will have the opportunity to ask questions about the case and what it means for the future of digital advertising.

In case you missed it, the lawsuit is centered around allegations that Google and Facebook have monopolized the digital advertising market and conspired to manipulate online ad auctions under an agreement known as “Jedi Blue.”

The following excerpt from an Editor and Publisher article published last January sheds some more light on the complaint:

“… Google has monopolized the digital advertising market to such an extent it threatens the extinction of local newspapers across the country. In the last two decades, almost 1,800 papers have either closed or merged, creating vast news deserts across the country. Since 2006, newspaper advertising revenue has fallen by more than 50%, from $49 billion to $16.5 billion in 2017. Nearly 30,000 newspaper jobs disappeared—a 60% industrywide decline — from 1990 to 2016.

The lost advertising revenues siphoned from the newspaper industry have gone directly into the coffers of Google and Facebook as a direct result of the monopoly power they exert over the digital advertising market, according to the complaint. Today, Google and Facebook have combined annual revenues of more than $200 billion. Together, Google and Facebook have acquired more than 300 companies over the past 20 years, gobbling up competitors, amassing greater control over the market and compelling the survivors to play by a set of rules that suffocates their ability to grow their businesses and threatens their existence.“

Editor & Publisher: https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/hd-media-files-first-of-its-kind-antitrust-lawsuit-against-google-and-facebook,185360

Needless to say, the outcome of this lawsuit could be incredibly important to the future of newspapers. We hope you’ll take the opportunity to attend this interview to learn a little more about what is at stake and show your support!

Just click the button below to join the webinar on Thursday!

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