Google is planning to pay around $1billion to news publishers over the next three years. The tech company has signed deals with 200 publications in selected countries. Google is aiming to add more publications in the future to expand geographically.
Previously, the advertising money was directly given to the publishers in the news industry. However, Google and Facebook are now getting a large share of the money. The shrinking ad revenue has led to the smaller newsroom and decreasing resources.
Google ‘News Showcase’
The plan of spending billion dollars on licensed news is Google’s way of showing publishers that it is committed to paying for high-quality journalism. The licensing deals were previously announced in June. These deals are a part of a new product called News Showcase.
Google’s new product is called News Showcase as in this the publishers will be showcasing their journalism and their important views.
The app will allow the publishers to choose their templates to showcase their journalism. This feature will help the user to understand the news in a better way.
In this, the publishers can curate and decide a way to present their content on the platform. The content is displayed as a “story panel”. Through this, publishers can employ timelines, bullets or related articles to attract viewers to click through to their site to read more.
Google will also pay some publishers to make paywalled articles. These types of articles will be accessible to the subscribers as well as the non-subscribers.
The News Showcase will only be available in the Google News app on Android. Google users in Brazil and Germany can access the feature on Thursday. But, it will be available in the iOS app soon.
Facebook and Google’s deal with different publications
Meanwhile, Facebook had set licensing deals with news outlets like The New York Times last years. In the same year, Facebook also launched Facebook news where a user can find global news easily.
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On the other hand, Google has been clashing with Australian regulators on a law that would allow the publishers to negotiate compensation for their content. Australia was one of the first countries in which Google began signing licensing deals with publishers.
But, now the company has ceased the program in Australia. However, Google is now hoping to bring New Showcase to Australia soon.
For News Showcase, Google has signed deals with publications in Germany, United Kingdom, Argentina, Canada and Brazil. However, Google has not revealed anything about their collaboration with US publishers.
According to reports, the payment of the publishers will vary and it will be entirely based on the type of news that will be provided. Google will also allow the publishers to include audio and video to News Showcase in the future.
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