Taxing 'churnalism'

I was drawn by this article in the Guardian on the Report by the Commission of Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society on taxing 'churnalism' . Local newspapers with primary news gathering operations do have some rights when the stories they acquire are syndicated or distributed worldwide and there is a case for some financial payback. A tax or levy on Google would redistribute revenues but since four publishers contol 70% of local and regional press, what guarantees are there that it would be used to finance the regional newspaper as opposed to central overheads. It will be interesting to see how the arguments on 'philanthropic journalism' used to finance the Huffington Post will develop and elicit a change in Charity Law to allow public benefit news gathering in the UK. There is no reason why this model might not help ailing local papers in the UK.