Australia's competition watchdog is set to do a "temperature check" within weeks on the state of negotiations over a voluntary code of conduct between digital platforms such as Google and Facebook and media companies.

The government has said if that code can't be agreed by November, it will make it mandatory.

In the past week, France's consumer watchdog has ordered Google to negotiate with media and come up with a plan for payments within three months.

Labor communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland says the situation in France is similar to Australia in that no money is flowing to publishers yet.

"But I think it would be useful to have the same sense of urgency in Australia because certainly, the sector feels that urgency," she told AAP.

"It's not a question of whether this is a nice, good public policy thing to do. It's essential.

"I think the unfortunate thing right now is the media has little confidence in the platforms coming to the table but they also have little reason to have confidence in the government's delivery of this."

Nevertheless, she's pleased that Australian Competition and Consumer Commission head Rod Sims has warned he doesn't want to let the matter slide out to November, and thinks the May check-in will bring action.

The coronavirus pandemic and associated economic crash have led to many newsrooms, especially in regional areas, closing or scaling back their operations.

An ACCC spokeswoman said the commission was very concerned about these closures.

"We believe this underscores the need for a code of conduct to address the imbalance of bargaining power between media companies and digital platforms, as recommended by the ACCC's digital platforms inquiry and supported by the federal government," she told AAP.

"The ACCC is actively involved in discussions about this code and will provide updates when appropriate."

Ms Rowland described the coronavirus effect as a perfect storm for media organisations.

"It's actually a perverse situation where the media is actually getting good ratings because people are at home and ready to consume, but they can't monetise that in terms of advertising because most of the economy has shut down and at the same time they're bleeding revenues to the (digital) platforms," she said.

News Corp and Nine have cited the impact of digital platforms on their bottom lines as part of their move to close down AAP, the national newswire.

Ms Rowland said the code of conduct and payments from digital giants would come too late for some organisations.

"But given the importance of the fourth estate ... whilst it might be easy to say this is too late, I don't think policymakers can give up on the media."

Australian Associated Press