(de-news.net) – Jan Ippen, founder and chief executive of Ippen Digital, has advocated the introduction of a digital levy targeting major internet platforms, arguing that the revenue generated could be used to strengthen and sustain journalism. Ippen, whose company forms part of the German newspaper publishing group Ippen Media, has maintained that the digital information environment has intensified structural pressures on public debate. In his assessment, these pressures stem in part from an increasingly uneven distribution of media revenues as well as from broader shifts in how opinions are formed and circulated online. Within this context, he described journalism as a core element of democratic opinion formation that is facing mounting strain in the internet era.
Ippen further suggested that the digital ecosystem currently displays a pronounced market asymmetry among the actors involved, particularly regarding the mechanisms through which content is distributed, the expectations of neutrality and objectivity placed on different participants, and the allocation of financial returns derived from online activity. Against this backdrop, he characterized the proposal advanced by publisher Julia Becker as a serious and constructive contribution to the ongoing policy debate surrounding media regulation and digital market structures.
Support for such a levy has also been expressed by other publishing organizations. Among them is Funke Media Group, which recently signaled its alignment with Becker’s proposal as well as with related policy considerations articulated by Wolfram Weimer, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Notably, Becker had previously used a conference platform to urge the Federal Government to adopt a digital tax that would apply to large technology companies such as Google and Meta Platforms. She argued that these platforms distribute journalistic material and derive substantial financial benefits from the circulation of such content, while the demanding and resource-intensive work of producing the content continues to be carried out by editorial teams in newsrooms. In her view, the current media-policy framework has developed a structural imbalance that disadvantages traditional journalistic producers in relation to the dominant digital intermediaries.
The broader democratic relevance of regional media institutions was also emphasized by Stefan Gruhner (CDU), head of the State Chancellery and media minister of Thuringia. Gruhner underlined that regional publishers, private media providers, and cultural actors collectively make an important contribution to the functioning of democratic public life. Beyond their role in generating economic value and sustaining regional creative industries, these actors also support the maintenance of local and regional media diversity, reinforce cultural identity at the community level, and help ensure the continued vitality of democratic public discourse.
Under the framework currently under discussion, the proposed levy would apply to large internet corporations, including Google and Meta. Advocates frequently point to the example of Austria as a possible reference model. There, since 2020, major online platforms have been required to remit five percent of the advertising revenue they generate domestically, a policy approach that supporters view as a precedent for redistributing a portion of digital market revenues within the national media landscape.
