Google launches `Google News Showcase’; to pay publishers for content

Announcing this, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said Google will pay “publishers to create and curate high-quality content” for “Google News Showcase.” This differentiated “online news experience” leverages swipeable cards called “story panels.”

These panels give participating publishers the ability to package the stories that appear within Google’s news products, providing deeper storytelling and more context through features like timelines, bullets, and related articles. Other components like video, audio, and daily briefings will come next, Google stated in a release. 

CEO Sundar Pichai said the new product called Google News Showcase will launch first in Germany, where it has signed up German newspapers including Der Spiegel, Stern, Die Zeit, and in Brazil with Folha de S.Paulo, Band and Infobae. 

It will be rolled out in Belgium, India, the Netherlands and other countries. 

Reports said about 200 publishers in Argentina, Australia, Britain, Brazil, Canada and Germany have signed up to the product. 

"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. 

Google, facing resistance from media groups over blocking revenues due to them, had in June announced plans to pay for content. It is facing legal action in Australia, where the court had given publishers and Google time to settle mutually.

Australia wants to force Google and Facebook to share advertising revenue with local media groups. 

However, Google on Sunday said Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code is highly unusual, largely untested and one-sided arbitration system, suggesting the setup won’t allow for fair negotiations.

Last week, Google proposed changes to help resolve the challenges and on Sunday said the Australian code is “highly unusual, largely untested, one-sided arbitration system that would determine commercial arrangements between Google and news companies.” 

“We don’t oppose a code governing the relationship between news businesses and digital platforms — but right now the way the law is drafted isn’t fair or workable,” Mel Silva, vice president of Google Australia and New Zealand, wrote in a blog post.

Google parent Alphabet reported a net profit of $34.3 billion on revenue of almost $162 billion last year. 

The product, which allows publishers to pick and present their stories, will launch on Google News on Android devices and eventually on Apple devices. 

"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.

German publisher the Spiegel Group has welcomed the project. "With News Showcase and the new integration of editorial content like from Spiegel, Google shows that they are serious about supporting quality journalism in Germany. We are happy to be part of it from the start," said Stefan Ottlitz, managing director of the Spiegel Group. 

The European Publishers Council (EPC), whose members include News UK, the Guardian, Pearson, the New York Times and Schibsted, however, said it is a ploy to skirt regulations. 

"By launching a product, they (Google) can dictate terms and conditions, undermine legislation designed to create conditions for a fair negotiation, while claiming they are helping to fund news production," said EPC executive director Angela Mills Wade. 

The product builds on a licensing deal with media groups in Australia, Brazil and Germany in June, which also drew a lukewarm response from the EPC.  

Google is negotiating with French publishers, among its most vocal critics, while Australia wants to force it and Facebook to share advertising revenue with local media groups.