Google relaxes
rules on free news stories, plans subscription tools
Google announced Sunday that subscription news
websites would no longer have to provide users three free articles per day or
face less prominence in search results
The move followed complaints from media giants like
News Corp that their sales were suffering
Online advertising rival Facebook is working on
similar subscriber registration tools
Apple last year released support for subscriptions within
its News application
Google announced on Sunday that subscription news
websites would no longer have to provide users three free articles per day or
face less prominence in search results, relaxing its rules following complaints
from media giants like News Corp that their sales were suffering.
For the last decade, Google's "first click
free" policy helped ensure that non-subscribers wouldn't be stifled by
paywalls when they clicked on news articles from searches.
Google, the largest component of Alphabet, had
contended that free samples would lead to increased subscriptions.
But apart from a few publications, online
subscriptions haven't taken off as intended, and media companies such as Wall
Street Journal parent News Corp increasingly complained that freeloading users
were cutting into sales.
This year, the Wall Street Journal stopped abiding by
Google's policy, corresponding to a drop in search rankings but an increase in
subscriptions.
"Over the last year, we got clear indications
that, yes, it was going to be important for publishers to grow subscription
revenues," said Richard Gingras, Google's vice president for news.
He said the number of news outlets with paywalls had
reached a critical mass in the last year, to the point that it made sense for
Google to start developing tools for them.
Google is now counting on the relaxed rules and
subscription software that is under development to stop the Wall Street Journal
and other publishers from holding back valuable content.
From hereon, publishers will be able to choose how
many, if any, free articles they want to offer to Google searchers.
Google also plans to launch free software in the
coming months for publishers that enables users to pay for content with credit
card information that they've previously supplied to the search giant.
The goal is to facilitate fast purchases that could
take as little as a single click, Gingras said. Customers' names and emails
would be shared with the publishers.
A separate tool would give publishers data on how to
maximize sign ups with personalized offers. Gingras said Google hasn't
determined whether it may charge a fee to recoup costs of that program.
"Google search is valuable because there's a rich
ecosystem out there," Gingras said. "To the extent the web is
healthy, that's very good for our core business. Our objective is not for this
to be a new line of business."
Facebook, Alphabet's top rival in online advertising,
is working on similar subscriber registration tools. Apple released support for
subscriptions within its News app last year.
Regards!
Librarian
Rizvi Institute of
Management
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