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Newton calls for greater regulation of tech platforms as he takes up PA presidency
The incoming president of the Publishers Association (PA), Bloomsbury’s chief executive Nigel Newton, has called on the government at the body’s annual general meeting to “restrain tech platforms through legislation now” or “risk publishing’s future”.
Newton succeeds David Shelley, chief executive officer of Hachette UK, who remains an officer of the PA. Antonia Seymour, chief executive of science publisher IOP Publishing, has also been elected to the position of vice-president.
In his speech to the a.g.m., Newton referenced the industry’s dependence on tech platforms as a major route to customers, saying: “It is not in the long-term interest of readers, authors, or the UK’s world leading publishing industry when that dependence can be exploited by those platforms.
“That is why I am calling today on the government to live up to its commitments and bring forward legislation in the Queen’s Speech next month to give the digital markets unit at the Competition & Markets Authority the power and the teeth it needs to do its job.”
The call echoed comments made last week by c.e.o. Stephen Lotinga, who has since announced he will be stepping down as c.e.o. of the PA. Discussing the body’s Publishing in 2021 report, Lotinga said a new regulatory regime would place requirements on the likes of Amazon, potentially including a "must carry" requirement. This would mean the online giant could not tell publishers "We are not going to put your books on our platform if you don’t agree these specific terms with us", Lotinga said.
“It could also say they are not allowed to use all the information they get from every single bookseller operating on their platform in order to be able to decide how they price their own books.”
Newton argued that legislation is “the only way” to ensure “fairness reigns in negotiations between tech platforms and their suppliers. I hope we will soon see action at a European level, with the EU already agreeing legislation to regulate digital market ‘gatekeepers’.
“The dependency of our industry as a whole on large tech platforms as gatekeepers to our retail markets and the gross imbalance of power which this gives rise to need to be urgently addressed.
“My message to the Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport is a simple one — as an author you know how important books are to this country’s culture and economy. You must restrain the tech platforms through legislation now or we risk publishing’s future.
“At the same time as correcting this imbalance, we must acknowledge our huge good fortune that the tech platforms kept goods flowing to people’s doors even as they were locked down at home and other meeting platforms enabled working from home to flourish. But having a world-leading tech sector requires world-leading regulation.”
Newton’s other priorities for his presidency include growing the book market and book readership, securing the financial viability of book and journal publishers and focusing on developing the diversity and sustainability of the industry.
