Global tech behemoth, Google has decided to put an end on its ongoing spat with publishers by announcing that it would pay some media groups for their news content. Reportedly, Google is planning to remunerate some media groups in Brazil, Germany, and Australia for their high-quality content.
The search engine giant has previously tried to circumvent payment deals demanded by news publishers around the world in return for using their content. Among these groups, European media groups are one of the tech giant’s harshest critics.
Recently in a blog post, Google's vice-president for news, Brad Bender wrote that the company is launching a licensing program to remunerate publishers for high-quality content which will be used for Google’s news experience releasing around the fourth quarter of 2020. The company would work with publishers from across multiple countries, with several more to be added in the coming years.
Apparently, the new product would be available on the company’s News and Discover section. Google is willing to pay for free access to paywalled articles on a publisher's website. However, the European Publishers Council expects that the standard norm should be designed only for leading platforms.
According to Angela Mills Wade, Executive Director, European Publishers Council, the current scenario where no licenses are settled with Google is highly unacceptable.
Meanwhile, publishers working on this project are Brazil's A Gazeta and Diarios Associados; Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Spiegel, Rheinische Post, and Die Zeit; along with Australian groups The Conversation, Solstice Media, and Schwartz Media.
As for France's competition authority, it has directed Google to pay publishers in France for their high-quality content. Whereas, Australia has made it clear that it would force tech giants like Facebook and Google to share their advertising revenue with Australian media groups.
Source Credit: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/google-to-pay-some-publishers-for-content-others-dubious-2020-06-25