More than 200 newspapers involved in the action across dozens of states.

Doug Reynolds, managing partner of HD Media, a holding company that owns several West Virginia newspapers, including the Charleston Gazette-Mail has been working with a group of lawyers.

The lawyers include experts in antitrust litigation and lawyers with a personal interest in newspapers from Farrell and Fuller, Fitzsimmons Law Firm, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd and Herman Jones.

The legal eagles will only get paid if the newspapers win settlements and have been retained by over 30 newspaper ownership groups (list) on behalf of over 200 publications to file lawsuits.

Clayton Fitzsimmons, one of the lawyers representing the newspapers said the idea is to recover past damages to newspapers caused by Big Tech companies.

The other is to "establish a new system going forward in which newspapers aren't just competitive again, but can thrive," he said, referencing laws like Australia's that force tech firms to pay publishers for their content.

The lawsuits were filed after the House Judiciary Committee published its major digital competition report last October, which included a section on newspapers. Politicians have expressed keen interest in understanding how Google and Facebook's dominance affects the newspapers industry.

Google claims that the cases are just wrong. The online advertising space was crowded and competitive, our ad tech fees are lower than reported industry averages, and publishers keep the vast majority of revenue earned when using our products.

“ We are one of the world's leading financial supporters of journalism and have provided billions of dollars to support quality journalism in the digital age."