Media publishers around the world have been long complaining about massive loss of revenue siphoned off by Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook. They say the huge multinationals take their content and pay nothing. They’ve also siphoned off much of the advertising revenue that news outlets depend on, putting them at serious risk. Many newspapers have in fact shut their doors for good, while others have greatly reduced staff which affects quality and quantity of news.
Now Google has announced a $1-billion dollar plan to pay publishers over three years in a programme to licence news from some 200 publishers in several countries including Canada. T
The concept first announced early this summer is called ‘News Showcase’ and allows for publishers to decide for themselves how much and in what form they can highlight their news.
The story panel will act as a ‘teaser’ to encourage clicking through to the originating publisher story and website. Google will also pay a fee to the publisher to allow access to certain paywall protected stories.
Starting today, users in Brazil and Germany can begin to access the feature through the Google Android news app, but plans are to expand to other platforms including Google search.
Google and the other media giants have been facing increased political pressure to pay for content and taxes from governments such as Australia and France, as many governments in turn have been under every increasing pressure from news producers who are becoming more squeezed by loss of revenue.
Reports say the internet giant has signed deals with over 200 publications including Australia, as well as in Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Canada and the U.K.
Sceptics however say the move is designed to stave off legislation while allowing Google to control the situation. Australia appears to be moving forward with legislation to make Google and Facebook pay, while Google is still in a dispute with France.
A report in 2016 noted that Google and Facebook had captured 64 per cent of all internet revenues in Canada, yet pay no tax, unlike the Canadian sources that produce the news.
Additional information- sources
- Associated Press (Everything GP): K Chan: Google to pay $1 billion over 3 years for news content
- CNN: K.Flynn: Oct 1/20: Google agrees to pay news publishers more than $1B
- Bloomberg (FP): N Drozdiak: Oct 1/20: Google to pay media publishers over $1 Billion for news content
- CWA Canada : May 27/20: CWA Canada, IFJ urge Trudeau to make tech giants share ad revenue
- Associated Press (CBC): Jun 25/20: Google will start paying some news publishers for content
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