Google wants access to longer news texts from publishers
The discussion about big tech companies paying for using news publishers’ content online has taken another step with Google announcing what it describes as a new tool that will offer publishers to get paid for allowing Google to publish news texts longer than search snippets.
The new tool is meant to address the fact that new EU legislation does not define how long a so called snippet, used in search results, can be. The new tool will offer publishers to get paid for allowing Google to publish news texts longer than search snippets. Google’s Director for News and Publishing Partnerships, Sulina Connal, in a blog says publishers will be offered an Extended News Preview (ENP) agreement with Google.
“We are now announcing the launch of a new tool to make offers to thousands more news publishers, starting in Germany and Hungary, and rolling out to other EU countries over the coming months.”
She notes that the new EU copyright directive allows search engines like Google to link to, and use “very short extracts” of press publishers’ content.
“The law also creates new rights for publishers when longer previews of their content are used online – but without defining what exactly a short extract or a longer preview is. Despite this uncertainty, we announced last year that we will pay news publishers for content which goes beyond links and short extracts, as we are already doing in countries such as Germany.”
”Through this new tool, which will be available via the Search Console, publishers will be offered an Extended News Preview (ENP) agreement with Google for this content. This will include information about what the offer is for, how to sign up and how to provide feedback.”
“All offers are based on consistent criteria which respect the law and existing copyright guidance, including how often a news website is displayed and how much ad revenue is generated on pages that also display previews of news content.”
Connal says that her company so far has signed licensing agreements with more than 750 publications across Europe for a service called Google News Showcase where publishers are paid for contributing content to a news service.
“Alongside these efforts, we have been negotiating with news publishers to license content under the European Copyright Directive, which EU countries are in the process of implementing into national law. So far, we have agreements that cover more than 300 national, local and specialist news publications in Germany, Hungary, France, Austria, the Netherlands and Ireland, with many more discussions ongoing.”
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