A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has reintroduced a bill that would allow media organizations to join forces to negotiate advertising rates with tech giants such as Alphabet Inc’s Google, Reuters writes.

The measure would allow news stations and publishers with fewer than 1,500 full-time employees to negotiate advertising rates together — many of which are struggling financially.

One of the largest online advertising companies for advertisers is Google.

News organizations have complained for years that they aren’t being compensated enough for the readers their content attracts.

A bill was also introduced in the last Congress, but did not become law.

The bill was introduced by Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, along with Republican Senator John F. Kennedy.

The News/Media Alliance, a media trade association, praised the bill, which it said would protect and support local journalism.

“New technologies such as artificial intelligence make the need for compensation even more apparent, where content creators may soon receive even less return than they receive today,” the group said.

Google has previously said that its advertising revenue and licensing fees provide the revenue news organizations need, and that its search engine drives readers to publisher sites billions of times a month.

In December, Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms, threatened to take down news stories if Congress passed the Journalism Competition Act. (photo: Waingro, Dreamstime.com)