Google has announced its first agreements to start paying publishers for news distributed on its platforms. Germany's Spiegel group, Brazil's Diarios Associados and InDaily in Australia will be compensated for news appearing on Google News and Discover.
Google provided little detail on the structure of the agreements or how the payments would work. The company said the agreements are part of its efforts to help publishers monetise their content. The "licensing program" will pay publishers for "high-quality content for a new news experience launching later this year". More publishers around the world are expected to be added soon to the programme, the company said.
Part of the scheme will include allowing Google users to access articles normally behind a paywall on the newspapers' sites. "This will let paywalled publishers grow their audiences and open an opportunity for people to read content they might not ordinarily see," Google said.
The company said the agreements build on its Google News Initiative launched in 2018, which committed USD 300 million to supporting journalism. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Google News Initiative has provided funding to more than 5,300 local publications globally via a Journalism Emergency Relief Fund, an ad-serving fee waiver on Google Ad Manager and a USD 15 million Support Local News Campaign to help alleviate some of the pressure on the sector, which has seen a drastic fall in ad revenues.
Google said it sends people to news sites over 24 billion times a month. The company has come under pressure to compensate publishers for taking snippets of their news on its platforms and directing advertising away from the traditional media. Legislation in the EU has made such payments mandatory, based on copyright law.
This is the first sign of Google entering into negotiations with publishers for such payments. In France, the company was ordered by competition authorities to start talks with publishers based on the EU law.
The European Publishers Council said it understands that this new feature will be available on Google’s primary mobile app and on Android mobile devices, accessible with a swipe on the home screen. The licensed content will also be built into the Google News app for every mobile device, and eventually on other Google products too.
However, "more details are needed to assess fully the scope of this new licensing scheme", the group said, adding that it "raises yet more questions about the gate-keeper role played by Google in determining the news experience of readers".
