Google has reached licensing deals with over
600 news outlets around the world and is seeing a "huge increase" in
users requesting more content from specific publications as part of a new
program, it said on Wednesday.
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The update comes as big internet service providers
including Facebook Inc. have been locked in bitter disputes over fair
compensation to publishers.
Google is continuing to negotiate with additional
publishers, including in the Unites States, to spend $1 billion for what it
calls News Showcase.
The program through 2023 is Google's biggest effort to
invest in an industry that blames tech giants for siphoning its advertising
revenue. Combined, Facebook and Google control over half of the digital
advertising market.
Google is exercising little oversight over publishers'
use of the money.
"The intention of our payment is to help make it
easier for publishers to be able to participate in the program," Brad
Bender, a vice president at Google overseeing News Showcase, told Reuters.
"But ultimately it's in service of creating this more sustainable future
for news."
But Google's hesitance to hold publishers accountable
for generating business results with the funds leaves questions about whether
the media industry will at last turn a corner after several attempts by tech
companies to provide support and improve its outlook.
"It's not up to us to tell a news publisher how to
run their business," Google said.
Bender expressed optimism, though, about News Showcase
steering publishers toward a brighter future and said the company would support
the program beyond the initial $1 billion.
"We're committed to being part of the
solution," he said.
Publishers from a dozen countries have agreed to license
content, Google plans to say in a blog post on Wednesday. Users can see the
content in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, and Britain, with Italy
joining Wednesday.
In February, Google said "well over" 500
publishers had signed deals.
Google's lone requirement for funding recipients is that
they provide a specified amount of content per day, Bender said. The funding
helps publishers staff journalists to arrange the content, known as panels,
which are then featured in Google's News and Discover apps, Bender said.
The option to select more content from some publishers
had existed in Google's News tool earlier, but follows from News Showcase
panels in the countries where they are available now represent a double-digit
percentage of all follows, Google said.
Over time, Google hopes publishers can turn followers
into paying subscribers or get a sales boost from increased viewership of
ad-supported content.
Reuters has reported fees for individual publishers in
France range from as large as $1.3 million for newspaper Le Monde to $13,741
for local publisher La Voix de la Haute Marne.
Ensuring that Google's funding grows newsrooms and not
owners' pocketbooks is a conversation journalists' groups should have with
publishers, Google said.
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