Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on January 22, 2020.
Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images
Google struck a deal with Murdoch-owned media conglomerate, News Corp, as proposed legislation in Australia threatens to jeopardize future technology platform operations in the country.
Under the three-year deal announced on Wednesday, News Corp’s brands in the U.S., UK and Australia, such as The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, will be featured on the Google News Showcase. The companies will enter into an ad revenue sharing agreement, develop a subscription platform, and YouTube will invest in video journalism as part of the agreement, according to a press release.
News Corp’s shares appeared in the news before closing later.
Google and News Corp are unlikely companions, as the media giant has long criticized Google. News Corp lobbied for regulators around the world to dismember the company and scolded it for allegedly robbing publishers.
But Google is now in a precarious position in Australia, where complaints from News Corp and other companies have helped fuel an impetus to take some of the world’s strongest action against technology platforms. With the new legislation, the Australian government intends to require online platforms like Google and Facebook to pay the media to display and link their content.
Google and Facebook were strongly opposed to the proposal. Google threatened to withdraw its service from the country if approved. Facebook said it would be forced to prevent users in Australia from sharing news content. Australian law enforcement officials largely rejected the most drastic threats. Microsoft, which has its own search engine, said recently that it supports the legislation and would be willing to abide by the rules if it were found to be subject to them.
“Today’s deal with News Corp covers a wide range of our products, such as News Showcase, YouTube, Web Stories, Audio and our advertising technology,” said Don Harrison, president of global partnerships at Google, in a statement. “News Showcase now has partnerships with more than 500 publications worldwide, demonstrating the value this product can bring to our news partners and readers everywhere. We look forward to announcing even more partnerships soon.”
News Corp CEO Robert Thomson praised Google in a statement for a “thoughtful commitment to journalism” and said he was “grateful that the terms of trade are changing, not just for News Corp, but for all publishers”
He thanked the head of the Australian competition regulator, as well as the country’s prime minister and treasurer, for remaining “steadfast in his country and in journalism”.
“For many years, we have been accused of attacking technology windmills,” said Thomson, “but what was a lone campaign, a quixotic search, has become a movement, and both journalism and society will be improved. “
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