LONDON (CU)_Google is set to pay British publishes for news content, as the tech giant launched its News Showcase product in the UK on Wednesday (Feb 10).
Reports suggest that 120 British publications, including Reuters and The Financial Times, will receive a few million dollars a year from Google, as a licensing fee for the news extracts that will appear in Google News Showcase.
The feature will be available in the Google News mobile app and the personalized content feed Google Discover, and when a reader clicks on the extracts in the app or the feed, they’ll be directed to the full article on the publisher’s site.
According to Ronan Harris, vice president and managing director at Google UK and Ireland, as part of the licensing agreements, Google will also launch the ability for users to access paywall content, which will provide the readers with the opportunity to read more of a publisher’s content, while enabling publishers to encourage readers to become a subscriber.
The Silicon Valley firm has convinced 450 news publications worldwide to produce content for the feature, which is currently available in Australia, Germany, France, Canada, Brazil, Japan and Argentina, as well.
In the recent days, tech giants have come under increasing pressure to pay media companies for their content, particularly in Australia, with the government proposing a new law which would force Google and Facebook to negotiate payments with local publishers and broadcasters for content included in search results or news feeds. If the parties fail to strike a deal, this would lead a government-appointed arbitrator to decide the price.
However, Google has responded to this legislation by threatening to pull its widely used search engine from the country. The firm continues to lobby hard against the code, calling it “unreasonable” and “unworkable.”
