HD Media, the West Virginia-based publisher of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Gazette-Mail and the Herald-Dispatch, is making its own news with the recent announcement that they have filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Google and Facebook. The purpose is to hopefully help the entire industry receive some form of compensation from the 70%+ of local advertising revenue these tech giants make from the content they exploit.

In this segment of E&P Reports, publisher Mike Blinder has an in-depth conversation with lawsuit co-council Paul T. Farrell Jr. and HD Media’s VP of news and executive editor Lee Wolverton to uncover how the lawsuit started and what they want to see happen as a result of their actions. Farrell and Wolverton also speak to how they feel about the need for local journalism and how this suit is not just about ad dollars but also the survival of the news industry as a whole.

Related links:

Download a copy of the class action lawsuit https://www.scribd.com/document/492607988/Complaint-HD-Media-Co-LLC-v-Google#from_embed

“Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets” House Judiciary Committee October 2020 Report on antitrust and anticompetitive conduct by Google and Facebook https://judiciary.house.gov/uploadedfiles/competition_in_digital_markets.pdf?utm_campaign=4493-519

HD Media Wikipedia Page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Media

Paul T Farrell Jr Wikipedia Page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_T._Farrell_Jr.