Social media platforms have a significant advantage over news publishers because of their size and superior information about users. Driven by the need to generate the maximum possible returns for investors, they do not shy from leveraging this advantage when negotiating commercial agreements. While news publishers in many countries come together as a consortium to further their collective interests, the rivalry among news publishers prevents them from presenting a united front to bargain for their collective interests.

As a result, in individual negotiations with social media platforms, the revenue share, if they ever get any, is trivial compared to the total money made by social media platforms. Local news publishers, often very small, suffer disproportionately, to the extent that many have gone bankrupt in the last few years.

Those who have survived have become more content-producing vendors. They exist to feed the social media monster, which decides which article will appear in which reader's feed to maximise advertising revenues. Journalistic responsibility to provide citizens with the information they need to make important decisions about their lives, communities and governments is seldom a consideration.