Google said on Wednesday it had finally entered into a multi-year agreement with News Corp., the largest newspaper owner in circulation in Australia, to pay for its content.
Why does it matter: The deal, along with several others between Google and Australian publishers in recent days, will likely allow the tech giant to avoid a new Australian law that would have forced it and rival Facebook to pay publishers on terms set by third parties, if they did not. they could reach agreements themselves.
Details: Google has agreed to pay News Corp an undisclosed amount for content to be featured in a new product called the Google News Showcase.
- Among the accompanying News Corp publications will be The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch and the New York Post in the US; The Times and The Sunday Times and The Sun in the UK; Australian, news.com.au, Sky News and more Australian metropolitan and local headlines.
- The 3-year agreement also includes the development of a subscription platform for News Corp outlets, according to a press release, as well as the sharing of advertising revenue through Google’s advertising technology services and “cultivating audio journalism and significant investments in innovative video journalism by YouTube”.
In the last week, Google has signed agreements with several Australian publishers, including Nine Entertainment, Junkee Media and Seven West Media.
- Australian lawmakers have said they will avoid passing the law if Google and Facebook come to terms with payment alone with Australian news publishers.
- The law was brought to Parliament for consideration this week.
- If such transactions had not been concluded this week, the adoption would have inevitably taken place in the coming days, although lawmakers have not said with certainty that the law is a 100% reduction.
Be smart: Agreement with News Corp. it was the last remaining agreement with a publisher that Google needed to be able to truly challenge the proposed law.
- News Corp owns about 70% of the Australian newspaper and is known to have a strong lobbying influence in Australia on this issue.
- “The agreement simply would not have been possible without the warm and fearless support of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and the board of directors of News Corp.” News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson said in a statement. country and for journalism. ”
The whole picture: What is happening in Australia serves as a turning point for other countries that want to unleash the power of Big Tech companies globally.
- The law would have made Australia the first country to force both Google and Facebook to pay news publishers for their content or to have imposed heavy fines.
- Both Facebook and Google have said they cannot run their businesses normally if the law goes into effect and warn that if Australia passes it as expected, they will withdraw some of their services from the country.
- Other countries in Europe and even the US are also considering measures to help even the conditions of competition between technology firms and old industries, such as newspapers.
These types of global threats they forced the technology giants to create new functions that direct money to the news without having to completely reimagine their business.
- Google said last fall that it would pay publishers $ 1 billion for their content to appear in the Google News Showcase.
- Facebook has spent millions of dollars paying publishers to be part of the Facebook News tab. Facebook News was launched last week in the UK
Go deeper: Technology coughs up money for news as it threatens regulations