CANBERRA, Australia – Seven West Media has become the largest Australian news media company to strike a deal with Google to pay for journalism in a partnership announced on Monday, before the country’s parliament looks at bills to force digital giants to pay for the news.
Google and the broadcaster, print and online publisher jointly announced that they had agreed to a “long-term partnership” after weekend discussions that Australian government ministers had with media executives, Facebook FB,
CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc. GOOGL,
GOOG,
and its subsidiary Google.
Kerry Stokes, president of Seven West Media, which has 21 publications, thanked the Australian government and competition regulator for his proposal.
“His excellent leadership in implementing the proposed news media trading code has resulted in being able to complete negotiations that result in a fair payment and guarantee our digital future,” Stokes said in a statement.
“The negotiations with Google recognize the value of quality and original journalism across the country and, in particular, in regional areas,” added Stokes.
The deal was closed under Google’s own model, the News Showcase. Google has made payment agreements with more than 450 publications worldwide since the launch of the News Showcase in October.
Google announced two weeks ago that it started paying for seven much smaller Australian sites under the News Showcase.
Google regional director Mel Silva said: “We are proud to support original, reliable and quality journalism and we are excited to welcome Seven West Media today as an important Australian editorial partner to join Google News Showcase. ”
The partnership was a substantial investment for Google in journalism, not just in metropolitan areas, but in smaller communities, she added.
Neither Google nor Seven West Media mentioned the value of the deal. Rival media company Nine Entertainment reported, citing unidentified industry sources, that it was worth over 30 million Australian dollars ($ 23 million) a year.
Before the announcement, treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that Google and Facebook were close to closing commercial deals, “which could be a real benefit for the national media scene and seeing journalists financially rewarded for generating original content, such as should be”.
Google and Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Frydenberg’s discussions with their leaders.
Google stepped up its campaign against the proposed law, telling the Senate committee that examined it that the platform would likely make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the code was introduced.
Facebook has threatened to prevent Australians from sharing news if the platform is forced to pay for news.
While digital giants may bear the likely cost of paying for the Australian news they connect to, they are concerned about the international precedent that Australia can set.
Google has faced pressure from authorities elsewhere to pay for the news. Last month, she signed an agreement with a group of French publishers, paving the way for the company to make digital copyright payments. Under the agreement, Google will negotiate individual licensing agreements with newspapers, with payments based on factors such as the published amount of daily and monthly site traffic.
In Australia, platforms can make payment agreements with media companies before the code is legislated.
The legislation would create an arbitration panel to make binding payment decisions in cases where a platform and a news company cannot agree on the price of the news.
The panel would generally accept the best offer from the platform or the publisher and only rarely set an intermediate price.
This should discourage news platforms and companies from making unrealistic demands.