Google is starting to retreat in its threat to leave the Australian market. In a blog post today, the company extended an olive branch, highlighting Australian publishers who would join the News Showcase program, which pays publishers as part of a licensing program to drive traffic to their stories.
In case you lost the context, Google previously threatened to withdraw Research from the Australian market in response to new legislation that required referral sources like Google and Facebook to pay organizations to link to their content. Ostensibly designed to combat a perceived “imbalance” in the relationship between news platforms and referral sources like Research, the law gives publishers the ability to dive twice, earning money not just from ad revenue driven by that referral traffic , but simply because it is linked by Google in Search or other products. Of course, the publishers were all very happy about it and, for obvious reasons, Google was not.
It remains to be seen how things will turn out for other companies, but Google has chosen to enter into private deals with “an increasing number of Australian publishers” – including The Canberra Times, The Illawarra Mercury, The Saturday Paper, Crikey, The New Daily, InDaily and The Conversation – to appear on the Google News Showcase. According to the blog post, this Showcase includes a licensing program for the content of Google services (presumably, which includes Search) and therefore this can functionally solve the problem posed by the new law, although more publishers need to participate .
In addition to licensing, Google will also pass publisher reviews, helping them better target readers and understand the flow of topics and trends over time.
This is not the first time that Google has paid to present news. Last year, he started a licensing program that meant, at least in part, a change in EU law, and some Australian publishers were already on board at the time. This program even allows Google to pay for articles paid on behalf of readers to promote their content. Google also has a “Google subscription” program in which many leading publications participate, including The Washington Post and Financial Times.
This agreement does not mean that Google is paying for all Australian publications yet and may not fully resolve the issue or bring it into compliance with the law, but it does mean that the company is willing to discuss more about licensing agreements before more aggressive enforcement , including forced arbitration, and many channels are already on board. Microsoft’s disappointment must be palpable.