Google made $4.7 billion in 2018 from its use of news publishers’ content for which publishers and reporters weren’t paid. Legislation has been introduced to address this problem-News Media Alliance

Google received an estimated “$4.7 billion in revenue in 2018 from crawling and scraping news publishers’ content – without paying the publishers for that use.“…Legislation to address this problem has recently been introduced in the House and Senate. 

June 10, 2019, “New Study Finds Google Receives an Estimated $4.7 Billion in Revenue from News Publishers’ Content,” newsmediaalliance.org, Arlington, Virginia 

“The News Media Alliance today published findings from a new study that analyzes how Google uses and benefits from news. Among the major findings of the study is that news is a key source on which Google has increasingly relied to drive consumer engagement with its products. The amount of news in Google search results ranges from 16 to 40 percent, and the platform received an estimated $4.7 billion in revenue in 2018 from crawling and scraping news publishers’ content – without paying the publishers for that use. 

The study, containing analysis conducted by experts at strategy and economics consulting firm Keystone Strategy and written by the News Media Alliance, includes a qualitative overview of Google’s usage of news content, an analysis of the amount of news content on Google Search and Google News, and an estimate of revenue Google receives from news. 

News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern said, “News publishers need to continue to invest in quality journalism, and they can’t do that if the platforms take what they want without paying for it. Information wants to be free, but reporters need to get paid.” 

The figures in the study are conservative estimates of the revenue Google makes through its use of news content. The actual value of news content to Google is more difficult to quantify because of the various ways the company uses news content to drive traffic, develop its products and entrench its dominant position. In addition to using news content for product development, such as training its artificial intelligence services, Google is tailoring its products – ramping up its use of news – to keep users in the Google ecosystem. 

According to the report, since January 2017, traffic from Google Search to news publisher sites has risen by more than 25 percent to approximately 1.6 billion visits per week in January 2018. Corresponding with consumers’ shift toward Google for news consumption, news is becoming increasingly important to Google. 

“The findings clearly point to Google responding to an increase in consumers searching for news, creating and tailoring products that keep users within its ecosystem. This means more money goes back to Google and not the publishers producing the content,” Chavern stated. 

Google’s news products also allow it to capture valuable user data that help it improve its core services. According to the report, in 2018, the number of unique monthly visitors in the U.S. to Google News eclipsed that of top news websites such as The New York Times, CNN and Huffington Post. 

“We have called for legislation that would provide a limited safe harbor for news publishers to be able to collectively negotiate for better terms with platforms such as Google and Facebook,” Chavern said. “This is the only solution to correcting the current marketplace imbalance, which allows the platforms to dominate the web and related advertising infrastructure, as well as control who sees publishers’ content and when.” 

A bill that would accomplish this – The Journalism Competition & Preservation Act – has been introduced in the House (on April 3 by Representative David Cicilline (D-RI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law and Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee Doug Collins (R-GA)) and in the Senate (on June 3 by Senators John Kennedy (R-LA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights). 

You can learn more in the executive summary and by reading the full study.”
 
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“Media contact:
Michael MaLoon
VP, Innovation & Communications michael@newsmediaalliance.org
571.366.1009 

The News Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print, digital and mobile publishers of original news content. Headquartered near Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Va., the association focuses on ensuring the future of news media through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. Information about the News Media Alliance (formerly NAA) can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.”

via Editor and Publisher


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