Print suffers as ads head to tech giants

US technology operations Google and Facebook took more Australian advertising dollars than the big five media companies combined last year, with print losing out as a result.

Google and Facebook attracted some $5bn in advertising between them, while Nine, News, Seven West, Southern Cross, and Prime collected $4.6bn in advertising sales.

Google took the lion's share of advertising, it alone raked in $4.3bn, with Facebook scooping up another $697m. The charge of advertising dollars into the online giants is leading to the closure of magazines, and the switch out of print of some marketing collateral.

Critics of the US duo also regularly question the amount of tax they pay on the revenues, claiming management invoices from overseas are diverting tax dollars away from Australia, although both companies claim they operate within the required rules and pay their fair share of tax.

Federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg has just announced tough new rules  aimed at redressing the balance between the US giants and local media organisations, who post stories from the local media with no recompense. THe new code is being warmly welcomed by the country's major news providers, who have long argued their content underpins the tech giants.

The move to a mandatory code comes after months of fruitless talks aimed at creating a voluntary code. Under the new code the tech giants will  have to negotiate with news content providers for fees, if no dela can be agreed aftre three months the caae will go to an independent arbitrator to come up with a figure.

Separately, the two tech giants, together with Apple, Amazon and Microsoft, copped a grilling when they fronted a US senate committee meeting overnight, with senators concerned about abuse of market power.