Publishers of 125 newspapers in 11 states filed or announced lawsuits against Google and Facebook on Monday claiming the tech giants have unlawfully monopolized the digital advertising market and engaged in an illegal secretive deal, nicknamed “Jedi Blue,” to thwart competition.
Fourteen complaints were filed or announced by publishers from Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Mississippi, New Jersey, Indiana, Missouri, Maryland and Delaware. The claims follow a pioneering January 2021 antitrust suit against Google and Facebook filed by HD Media, a West Virginia-based newspaper company that publishes the Pulitzer Prize winning Charleston Gazette-Mail and (Huntington) Herald-Dispatch.
Among those filing Monday is AIM Media, led by CEO Jeremy Halbreich, a veteran newspaper executive who previously served as board chairman and CEO of Sun-Times Media, publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times along with seven other daily newspapers and 40 weekly newspapers in the Chicago region; founder and chairman of American Consolidated Media, publisher of 110 daily and weekly newspapers in 10 states; and ex-president and general manager of the Dallas Morning News. AIM Media Texas, AIM Media Midwest and AIM Media Indiana are among the plaintiffs in Monday’s filings who collectively publish approximately 50 newspapers in four states.
“As found by recent investigations conducted by both federal and state agencies, Google and Facebook have monopolized the digital advertising market and restricted the monetization of local news by local news organizations,” Halbreich said. “This has had a dramatic impact on the revenues and resources available for local news organizations. These monopolistic practices must come to an end. It is no longer appropriate for these two platforms to profit directly from local news while publishers increasingly struggle.”
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
