The ongoing dilemma of small news publishers in Australia seems to be coming to an end as Australia’s richest man and mining billionaire Andrew Forrest coming forward to extend a helping hand to negotiate with Facebook and Google. Andrew Forrest’s philanthropic organisation will help 18 small news publishers in the country collectively to negotiate with Google and Facebook to secure licensing deals for the supply of news content.

Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation said that it would submit an application with the country’s competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, allowing the publishers to bargain without breaching competition laws.

Facebook and Google have been required since March to negotiate with Australian outlets for content that drives traffic and advertising to their websites. If they don’t, the government may take over the negotiation.

Both companies have since struck licensing deals with most of Australia’s main media companies but they have not entered into agreements with many small firms. The federal government is scheduled to begin a review of the law’s effectiveness in March.

A Google spokesperson responded about the initiative by re-sending an earlier statement which said “talks are continuing with publishers of all sizes.” Facebook said it “has long supported smaller independent publishers.”

The move comes after ACCC late last month allowed a body representing 261 radio stations to negotiate a content deal.

News organizations, which have been losing advertising revenue to online aggregators, have complained for years about the big technology companies using content in search results or other features without payment.

Earlier a tough stand was taken by the Australian government and global tech platforms over the sharing of royalties with news publishers, Google has threatened to remove its search engine from the country, and Facebook has said it could block Australian users from posting or sharing news links if proposed. Later the issue was solved and the tech giants entered into deals with bigger publishers and the smaller ones were left out.

Now according to the new initiative from Forrest the 18 small publishers include online publications that attract multicultural audiences and focus on issues at a local or regional level.