Google will start paying publishers for high quality stories as part of a new licensing program.
According to the tech giant, this is in line with a new News experience that will be available later this year on Google news and Discover services.
The program is starting with publishers in Brazil, Australia and Germany with more to come soon.
The announcement comes after some authorities from select countries decided to investigate how tech firms use News content without paying for it.
Australia recently unveiled plans to compel the firms pay for the free News content which they profit from. In April, Google was ordered by the French authorities to pay French publishers for their content.
This is the latest development given that there has been a long-standing row on whether tech giants should pay for the snippets from publishers which appear in search results.
In the new deal, Google also intends to make News from subscription websites free
“Where available, Google will also offer to pay for free access for users to read pay-walled articles on a publisher’s site,” Google said.
“This will let pay-walled publishers grow their audiences and open an opportunity for people to read content they might not ordinarily see.”
Paying for news content is a great idea, particularly as the move will support struggling local publishers who write important local journalism.
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