Tech giant Google has announced a 1 billion USD paycheck for news publishers to use and publish their content. This payment is to be spread out over three years. This comes after news firms all over the world have accused the company of publishing their content without paying them proper compensation.
This new product called News Showcase will allow news publishers from all over the world to pick out which news to present to the public and is to be rolled out on the existing Google News platform.
Speaking about it, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai said that will be launched first in Germany and in Brazil. “This financial commitment – our biggest to date – will pay publishers to create and curate high-quality content for a different kind of online news experience,” Pichai said in a blog post. “This approach is distinct from our other news products because it leans on the editorial choices individual publishers make about which stories to show readers and how to present them,” Pichai said.
While this move by Google has been welcomed by German Publisher Spiegel, the European Publishers Council (EPC), whose members include News UK, the Guardian, Pearson, the New York Times and Schibsted, however, were not enthusiastic. They expressed their displeasure as they claim that this product works on the basis of a licensing deal, which they claim will affect their revenue.