Google in conversations with publishers about payment for news

Google in conversations with publishers about payment for news

The initial conversations are taking place mainly with French publishers and other European publishers, and may not lead to any agreement.

Google, from Alphabet Inc., is in discussions with publishers about paying license fees to include excerpts from their articles in Google News search results.

The initial conversations are taking place mainly with French publishers and other European publishers, and may not give rise to any agreement, says a person familiar with the matter. They added that an agreement would only apply to news products such as the Google News vertical, they added, not general web content queries.

Google sparked a protest in France last fall after announcing that it would show search results for French news stripped of previews of articles or excerpts, following a new copyright law.

This led to French publishers and officials, who hoped to win compensation from the platforms as part of the new law, to accuse the giant of searches to intimidate them. The French antitrust regulators at that time said they would investigate the implementation of the rules by Google.

News executives have been asking Facebook Inc. and Google to pay for the right to host their articles. They argue that their journalism is what attracts users to those platforms, while the two tech giants are capturing most of the dollars for online advertising.

Richard Gingras, vice president of news for Google, said helping people find quality journalism is "important for informed democracy and helps support a sustainable news industry."

"We are talking with partners and looking for more ways to expand our ongoing work with publishers," he added.

In Europe, Google’s difficult relationships with publishers have led to legal action, lengthy European Union antitrust investigations and an EU Copyright Directive that allows the media to seek payment from Internet sites that Show your items. France was the first country to implement the new rules.

In October, Facebook introduced a separate news section in its flagship application and agreed to pay some publishers $ 1 million to $ 3 million a year to put their articles in it.

In a earnings call last week, News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson mentioned Google by name, saying there are "positive signs" that the search company's director, Sundar Pichai, "deeply appreciates the deep social influence of high quality journalism. ”

The Wall Street Journal reported on the discussions above.