Google on Tuesday announced the launch of News Showcase in India, LiveMint reported. News Showcase, the tech giant’s global licencing programme, pays news publishers for online content and allows them to curate it, while giving users limited access to paywalled articles. It is an outcome of the demand by the global media fraternity that technology platforms share with publishers advertising money they make from hosting their content.
In India, Google has sealed agreements with 30 publishers, including HT Digital Streams, Hindu Group, Indian Express Group, ABP Live, India TV, NDTV, Zee News, Amar Ujala, Deccan Herald, Punjab Kesari, Telegraph, IANS, and ANI. Starting on Tuesday, the service will be available in English and Hindi. “This programme incentivises and supports news publishers to curate high quality content on Google’s News and Discover platforms, connecting readers with the news they need,” the Financial Express quoted Google India’s vice president, Sanjay Gupta, as saying.
The American corporation earlier signed similar deals with publishers in the UK, Australia, Argentina.
In February, the Indian Newspaper Society had asked Google to compensate the country’s papers for using their content, and sought a larger share of its advertising revenues.
Not all publishers are pleased with the arrangement. An unnamed INS executive told Livemint that News Showcase is meant more to appease publishers globally than help them. He pointed out that Google will continue monetising news articles appearing in its search results, but won’t pay news organisations for it.
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