Google has threatened to pull its search business from Australia. The move is a response to the country’s new proposal that requires tech platforms to pay royalties to individual publishers and broadcasters for displaying search links and snippets.
Sound familiar? The battle to get platforms to pay publishers is a bloody and long-fought one.
Regardless of how much Google is to blame for the decimation of the news media industry, its dominance allows it to throw its weight around while offering tidbits of publisher-friendly initiatives.
In this instance, Google execs point to its Google News Showcase, where it pays participating publishers (some 400 globally) to build content in story panels in its News app, as evidence that it supports the news industry.
Publishers I spoke with at Showcase's launch in October, more cynical of this largesse, feared that Google can terminate the agreement if any party participates in a legal claim or complaint against Google. In most cases, the tech giant has a preeminent bargaining position.
Nonetheless, Australia is taking aim at its Search business, a step further than other countries have gone. The question Google execs would be worried about is what precedent this sets. Google withdrew its News service from Spain in 2014 (barely grazing the tech company), but the mood of the world is different now.
Taking strategies into their own hands, publishers have been building subscription businesses. Take Gannett, which is aiming to get 10 million subscribers over the next 5 years. Read how it plans to get there from this piece by Rachel Winicov.
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Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
Lucinda
Lucinda.southern@adweek.com
