Google will start paying select publishers for news under new licensing programme

Google will pay for news content from some media outlets as part of a new licensing programme to "support the news industry".

In a statement released yesterday, Brad Bender, Google's vice president of product management, said the programme will "pay publishers for high-quality content for a new news experience launching later this year".

The statement said: "This program will help participating publishers monetize their content through an enhanced storytelling experience that lets people go deeper into more complex stories, stay informed and be exposed to a world of different issues and interests. We will start with publishers in a number of countries around the globe, with more to come soon."

The statement pointed to the news industry being "challenged financially" at a time when a "vibrant news industry matters perhaps more than ever".

Partnerships have already been signed with local and national publications in Germany, Australia and Brazil. According to CNN, these include Australian companies Schwartz Media, the Conversation and Solstice Media; Brazil's Diários Associados and A Gazeta; and Germany's Der Spiegel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Zeit, and Rheinische Post.

As the Verge reports, the announcement comes after multiple countries "stepped up efforts to have the search giant compensate publishers for the news content it links to. Australia recently unveiled plans to force tech platforms to help pay for the free content they profit from. In April, France’s competition authority ordered Google to pay for content from French publishers."

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