Publishers in Denmark are embarking on a novel approach to get the dominant platform monopolies Facebook and Google, as well as other tech giants like Twitter, TikTok, and Microsoft, to pay the for the reporting and other content that is shared on those platforms.

The monopolization of advertising revenue by these gatekeeper corporations has devastated the news publishing industry around the world. In response, several countries have begun implementing reforms that allow publishers to demand fair compensation for the use of their content by these giants. But no nation’s publishers are taking that fight as seriously as Denmark’s, where virtually every news publisher has joined a new collective—the Danish Press Publications’ Collective Management Organization, or DPCMO—to leverage their combined power to demand a fair deal from the platform monopolies.

Publishers say the current advertising revenue landscape has left them with little choice. In an interview with Open Markets, Anders Krab-Johansen, the CEO and Publisher of Berlingske Media, which owns Berlingske—Denmark’s paper of record and the oldest newspaper in the Nordic world—described the challenges the paper is facing in the platform era as uniquely existential. “The other crises [Berlingske has faced] were crises in society,” he explained. “This seems more far reaching” in that it poses a direct challenge to the language and culture of the Danes. “I am pretty certain that lots of Danish media brands will fold in the coming years because revenue streams are basically disappearing.”

New research by FehrAdvice & Partners AG found that Google Search’s monopolization alone was depriving publishers in nearby Switzerland of approximately $176 million in annual revenue. Under old remuneration deals, media organizations have received small fractions of this amount, if anything at all.

According to DPMCO head Karen Rønde, the newly formed Danish collective was created to correct that imbalance. In an interview with Open Markets, Rønde explained that the creation of the DPCMO was enabled by the European Union’s sweeping 2019 copyright reforms, which are still in the process of being integrated into the national laws of EU member states. That directive created remuneration rights for copyright holders but left the specifics of how publishers can pursue those rights open to interpretation.

In Denmark, publishers decided that banding together, rather than pursuing a suite of individual compensation claims, was the path to ensuring a sustainable funding stream for all in the platform era. While the EU directive theoretically allows publishers of each member nation to cooperate, only Danish publishers have worked in a unified manner. If they succeed in winning fair deals, their peers in other EU nations may be compelled to follow suit.

But hurdles remain. “Getting the publishers united was a challenge, because they are used to being competitors,” Rønde told Open Markets. The challenge is exacerbated by the fact that publishers differ in size, history, and genre, and hence often have disparate interests. Another challenge has been resistance by the platforms. While some tech giants, like Microsoft, have signed interim deals, others, including TikTok and Facebook, have fought the DPCMO’s claims. This includes by denying that news adds value to their platforms, and refusing to share the data that would allow independent experts to assess that value.

That obstinance has led Rønde to file several formal complaints in hopes the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority and Danish Copyright License Tribunal will step in and mediate the collective’s claims. If Facebook and Google’s meddling in Australia’s effort to adopt publisher bargaining rights or moves to withhold news content in Canada are any indication, these legal complaints are likely just the beginning of the collective’s fight.

But activists hope a suite of bills set to be introduced in the Danish parliament this session will help build momentum for sustainable revenue streams. Those reforms are intended to further bolster the rights of Denmark’s copyright holders—especially in relation to the advent of generative AI. In the meantime, publishers are committed to staying united. “The key thing here is sticking together,” Krab-Johansen insisted, “because together, the tech companies can’t get around us.”

The Open Markets Institute and the AI Now Institute last week hosted a conference, “AI and the Public Interest,” which convened leading lawmakers, law enforcers, technologists, policy experts, and journalists from around the world to discuss AI’s monopoly problem. Speakers included FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya; Doha Mekki, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice; Member of European Parliament Andreas Schwab; and Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union. Speaking at the event, Mekki warned us to look out for Big Tech’s arguments that essentially say, “we welcome regulation, just not antitrust regulation.” She continued, “We need to be smarter and more concerned about how companies are using data, particularly the proprietary kind.” Bedoya, meanwhile, said he’s keeping a close eye on AI development and “just a few actors already have some advantages because they are vertically integrated.”

Hoffman delivered a keynote in which she spoke out against Bossware and other forms of worker surveillance and algorithmic management to greater control workers. She also cited the recent contracts negotiated by Communications Workers of America and the Writers Guild as transformative in navigating the role of and impacts of AI on workers. Others who spoke at the event included antitrust scholar Tim Wu; legal scholar Zephyr Teachout; investigative journalist Julia Angwin; Laura Edelson, codirector of Cybersecurity for Democracy; and Rana Foroohar, Financial Times global business columnist. You can view the entire event here.