In a recent guest article for the news magazine “Focus”, publisher Julia Becker criticized major global corporations, citing examples like Google and OpenAI, for activities she claims threaten the very existence of classic media journalism. Becker argues that large platform and AI conglomerates benefit immensely from professional journalistic efforts-particularly the necessary work of research, quality assurance, and verification-yet they do not invest comparably in the creation of that content. Instead, they externalize the costs while internalizing all the profits.
Calling out the current economic model, the publisher stated that while it may appear efficient on paper, it is “dangerously anti-democratic”. She warns that if professional journalism loses its economic foundation, it will be replaced by cheaper, louder content that prioritizes maximum impact over adherence to truth.
From her perspective, democratic media outlets are not merely market players; they constitute democratic infrastructure. By functioning as the “fourth estate” they have the unique ability to expose, control, and frame power-not through governance, but by asking questions when others remain silent and by creating public discourse even when it is uncomfortable.
This critical function, however, is coming under massive strain. Becker points out that the power of public visibility no longer rests primarily with newsrooms but with a handful of global platform giants, naming Meta, Alphabet, and ByteDance. While these companies may not directly control the “content”, they control the “reach”, and reach translates into power.
Examining the situation in the United States, Becker contends that trust in the media has fractured along political lines, resulting in a widespread erosion of any common factual basis. She cautions that without this shared “reality” democracy becomes fragile, and Europe is not immune to this decline.
The integration of new technologies, such as AI, presents another challenge. Becker notes that companies developing systems to “recombine and generate content” are technologically impressive, but they raise fundamental democratic and economic questions. She explains that these sophisticated systems rely entirely on decades of journalistic archives, research, and information compiled by newsrooms and publishers. Yet, this reliance is paralleled by a trend where users increasingly direct their attention away from the original sources.
To counteract these forces, Becker, who also serves as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board for the Funke Media Group, demands tangible systemic changes. She advocates for mandatory, fair compensation for the use of journalistic content within the digital space, suggesting a digital levy not as a penalty, but as necessary corrective taxation. Furthermore, she calls for mandatory clear regulations regarding AI, insisting on source transparency, the protection of intellectual property, and a mechanism ensuring that journalistic labor cannot remain perpetual free training material.
