Google May Follow Facebook In Paying Publishers For News Content – Report

Jill Goldsmith
·2 min read

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Months after Facebook launched a news product that pays publishers for content, Google is also said to be in talks about paying organizations a licensing fee for content for an unspecified new product.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, this batch of publishers are mostly outside the U.S., including France and elsewhere in Europe, and it’s not clear if agreements will be struck. But the talks indicate a possible shift in the giant company’s relationship with purveyors of news.

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“We want to help people find quality journalism — it’s important to informed democracy and helps support a sustainable news industry. We care deeply about this and are talking with partners and looking at more ways to expand our ongoing work with publishers, building on programmes like our Google News Initiative,” Richard Gingras, VP of News at Google, told the WSJ.

Google directs a huge amount of traffic to news sites but has thus far not paid publishers for their content.

Facebook, in a move that had major implications for the news business, last fall introduced Facebook News to showcase original reporting and to pay for it. Stories are curated by news professional, not just algorithms. It was said to start offering several major news outlets up to $3 million a year for headlines and previews of articles.

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