Google News Showcase, what it is and how it works
As countries around the world are exploring ways to force tech platforms to pay publishers, Google is promoting News Showcase, its new system by which it pays media for a selection of content.
Google is giving in to pay publishers, but on its own terms.
News Showcase is the product developed by Google to negotiate compensation agreements for news with the media.
In recent times, regulators around the world, encouraged by interest groups in the information industry, have been pushing for legislation that would require tech giants like Google and Facebook to pay publishers directly for sharing news. .
Google has resisted the idea of paying publishers for years. He even threatened to withdraw Google News from Europe if the EU imposed similar policies after the EU Copyright Directive was passed.
But after realizing that the trend is likely inevitable, Google has taken a more compromise-oriented approach with publishers.
As evidenced by the agreements reached with the media first in France and then in Australia , where the Mountain View giant has come under severe pressure from the regulatory authorities for the remuneration of publishers.
And these deals are based precisely on Google News Showcase. Google's recent licensing program to pay publishers "for high quality content". At the moment the product covers over 500 publications around the world. "We look forward to announcing new partnerships very soon," said Don Harrison, President of Global Partnerships at Google.
According to Il Sole 24 Ore, that very soon should also concern Italy, where Google and important publishers are in the pipeline on an agreement.
THE IRON ARM WITH THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT
According to the Australian government (and beyond), Google and other tech giants have made billions of dollars from advertising in recent years.
On the other hand, online platforms claim that publishers voluntarily provide the titles, images and links that users share on social media and that such sharing serves the interest of publishers, as some users will click on their pages.
Unable to compete with the tech giants, news publishers have had to seek alternatives to advertising revenue to survive.
Precisely for this reason Canberra has drafted a bill to force technology platforms (Google and Facebook) to pay publishers for the titles and links that fill their users' posts, through terms set by a third party.
If approved, it would be a first in the world.
Initially on a war footing, at the last minute Google struck a deal with News Corp to circumvent upcoming Australian rules
And for one giant negotiating an agreement, another keeps the point. Facebook will restrict the sharing or viewing of Australian and international news content for publishers and individuals in Australia. The company announced this in a blog post a few hours after the announcement of the agreement between Google and News Corp.
THE PARTNERSHIP WITH NEWS CORP
Shortly before Facebook's move, Google announced it had signed a multi-year agreement with News Corp , Australia's largest newspaper owner, to pay for its content. Google had already made similar deals with several Australian publishers previously.
Murdoch's group publications that are covered by the distribution agreement include the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and the New York Post in the US, the Times , the Sunday Times and the Sun in the UK, and various platforms including The Australian, news.com.au and Sky News in Australia.
Murdoch's publishing group will therefore receive "significant payments" to present the news in the Google News Showcase.
AND THE QUERELLE WITH THE FRENCH PRESS
Truce reached therefore between Australia and Google on the remuneration of publishers.
A month earlier, also in France, peace reached between Big and publishing after months of controversy . The European copyright directive, approved in 2019, allows publishers to request a commission from online platforms that show excerpts of their news. And France is the first country to have transposed the directive into its own legal system.
At the end of January, Google and the French Press Alliance (Apig) – which represents 300 French newspapers and weeklies – announced the signing of an agreement that paves the way for the Mountain View giant to pay the national and regional newspapers across the Alps. . “It took the Antitrust which forced Google to sit down to negotiate with publishers on the recognition of compensation for“ related rights ”and the Paris Court of Appeals which upheld the decision. But in the end, agreements were found. And central is the bet on Google News Showcase. " Il Sole 24 Ore stressed.
THE GOOGLE NEWS SHOWCASE PROJECT
Following the announcement last June, Google launched the Google News Showcase on October 1st. The US giant will invest $ 1 billion in partnership with news publishers around the world over the next three years to create and curate high-quality journalism through its new News Showcase product.
It is a sort of showcase where participating publishers can independently manage and decide how to present their content on the platform.
INVESTMENTS BY BIG FOR PUBLISHING
This is Google's largest financial commitment to the information industry. In 2018, it pledged $ 300 million in efforts to support the information industry. Google News Showcase resumes that commitment to its existing news licensing program, in which it pays select publishers to submit their stories in Google News and Search.
“Over the years Google has invested significantly in helping the news industry, for example with the Google News Initiative, with advertising technology tools, with subscription services, and most recently with the $ 1 billion investment. dedicated to partnerships with publishers through the Google News Showcase, which offers remuneration for content curation and a richer online news experience, ”said Don Harrison, President of Global Partnerships at Google, on the occasion of the partnership with News Corp. "We look forward to announcing new partnerships very soon."
SOON ALSO ITALY IN GOOGLE NEWS SHOWCASE?
According to Il Sole 24 Ore, “that very soon, it should also concern Italy, where Google and important publishers are in the pipeline on an agreement. Everything will revolve around the Google News Showcase, a product that now covers over 500 publications globally in a dozen countries including Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, the UK and Argentina. Individual publishers will choose the stories to be presented in the showcase panel. And Google will pay upstream for this production ”.
THE GOOGLE COMPROMISE
While regulators around the world have threatened Google with legislation to force digital platforms to pay publishers on the terms of policy makers, Google has intervened upstream. The search engine giant has therefore created a product for publishers with which it pays them for the news on the platform but at the same time negotiates its own payment terms.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/google-news-showcase-cose-e-come-funziona/ on Fri, 19 Feb 2021 14:42:52 +0000.