U.S. newspaper publishers, who say they are chafing under the market power of Google and Facebook, are calling on Congress to allow them to negotiate collectively with the online giants.

They want an antitrust exemption so they can compete more effectively with what they term a de facto “digital duopoly,” which now dominates online advertising.

“The objective is to permit publishers to have concrete discussions with the two dominant distributors of online news content, Google and Facebook, on business model solutions to secure the long-term availability of local journalism produced by America's newsrooms,” the News Media Alliance said in statement released Monday.