Zucker Calls For FB, Google Probe

CNN President Jeff Zucker on Monday called on regulators to focus on the powerful influence Silicon Valley heavyweights Google and Facebook exercise in an era when news organizations are allocating more money and resources to digital operations. according to The Hill.

“Everyone is looking at whether these combinations of AT&T and Time Warner or Fox and Disney pass government approval and muster," Zucker said in his keynote address at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

"The fact is nobody, for some reason, is looking at these monopolies that are Google and Facebook,” Zucker noted. “That’s where the government should be looking, and helping to make sure everyone else survives. I think that’s probably the biggest issue facing the growth of journalism in the years ahead.”

According to digital market research company eMarketer, "Google and Facebook combined will account for more than 65% of US digital ad revenues in 2018."

Zucker on Monday also urged advertisers and technology companies to help explore innovative ways to monetize news content on mobile devices, warning that "good journalism will go away" if new approaches can't be found.

“In a Google and Facebook world, monetization of digital and mobile continues to be more difficult than we would have expected or liked,” Zucker said.

“I think we need help from the advertising world and from the technology world to find new ways to monetize digital content, otherwise good journalism will go away."

The 52-year-old former "Today" show executive producer noted that the average CNN viewer is 59, but the average age of mobile viewers is 37.