Google VS Publishers: Is The War Coming To An End?

Following a massive investment, Google is partnering up with news publishers to create an ‘enhanced storytelling experience’

Over the recent years, there has been growing tension and legal battles over copyright laws between Google and news publishers. Recently, the tech giant has decided to comply and has committed one billion U.S. dollars over the next three years to support news publishers.

Here’s what the CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, had to say about it:

‘Today I’m proud to announce Google is building on our long-term support with an initial $1 billion investment in partnerships with news publishers and the future of news.’

So far, they have agreed to licensing deals with publishers in 3 countries: Germany, Australia, and Brazil, with more coming soon.

This partnership will be conducted through something called Google News Showcase. Developed to be an enhanced storytelling experience, this feature will allow publishers to create story panels. In other words, Google will pay licensing fees to showcase news from these publishers (who have total control on what they report on).

As we’ve seen in recent years, demand for reliable news has been growing exponentially and this has exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In hindsight, it’s understandable why they decided to invest this much money. Especially if you take into account that Google:

1. Are facing tougher sanctions and restrictive copyright laws, especially in the EU.

2. Is being critiqued by publishers, so improving the relationship between them is a good PR move.

3. Wants to ensure a high standard of news sources. Thanks to these partnerships, they’ll know exactly the kind of quality their users are getting and thus, will distance themselves from competitors like Facebook and Apple.

Why does this matter to you?

If you work in the news industry, rest assured that this feature will have no implications on ranking whatsoever. However, having your story featured will increase the click through rate (CTR), views, and engagement of your site.

You can create a subscription based model or even a simple newsletter in order to take full advantage in case of a surge of web visitors.