The competition watchdog will next week spell out some of the damage being done to the Australian media and advertising markets by the likes of Google and Facebook, as well as the benefits of digital platforms.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission boss Rod Sims will hand over to the government the draft report of his digital platforms inquiry on Monday.
The inquiry kicked off in December last year to look at the effect that digital search engines, social media platforms and other digital content aggregation platforms have on competition in media and advertising services markets.
In particular, the inquiry has taken evidence on the impact of digital platforms on the supply of news and journalistic content, and its flow-on effects for journalists, advertisers and consumers.
Australian Associated Press argued in its submission the proliferation of news on search engines, aggregation sites and social media platforms has given consumers the impression that news is "cheap or free and easily available".
"In reality, it is actually expensive and often difficult for news content creators to produce," the submission read.
"Ultimately this new industry paradigm has resulted in less revenue to serious news creators to fund quality journalism and costly public interest coverage of issues like local courts, as well as regional and rural news."
