Google announced a licensing program that pays publishers for high-quality content for a news experience starting later this year. There have been a lot of legal and legislative fights over this, and European news publishers have been trying to get Google to pay them to license content for years.
This program will help participating publishers monetize their content through an enhanced storytelling experience. The Google News Initiative helps journalism thrive in a digital age. They have already signed partnerships with local and national publications in Germany, Australia and Brazil. The specific terms of the deal have not been disclosed nor have any selection or participation criteria. This new partnerships will allow publishers to curate and bring their award winning editorial voice into play and provide trusted news via Google products.
Google will also offer to pay for free access for users to read paywalled articles on a publisher’s site. News publishers have seen heightened demand and traffic for news since 2016, but especially since the onset of the COVID-19. More and more publishers have been putting up paywalls in the attempt to grab some revenue from subscriptions rather than relying on advertising. People also get to read content they might not ordinarily be able to even see.
Google News and Discover
The consumer experience will appear in Google News and in the Google Discover feed. It may be a significant evolution of current full coverage treatment of certain stories in Google News. Google will pay for access to the paywall protected content.
As per Google’s Blog: “We have been actively working with our publisher partners on this new product which will launch first on Google News and Discover. We are currently engaged in discussions with many more partners and plan to sign more in the coming months.”
This is a great initiative by Google to bring the best content for users to search and discover. Google will continue to be a meaningful resource for publishers when the program actually launches.
