Exclusive, Google pays over 300 EU publishers for news, more to come

BRUSSELS, May 11 (Reuters) – Alphabet (GOOGL.O) The company told Reuters that the Google unit has signed deals to pay more than 300 publishers in Germany, France and four other European Union countries for their news and will roll out a tool that will make it easier for others to sign up as well.

The move was announced publicly later Wednesday after the adoption of European Union copyright rules three years ago that require Google and other online platforms to pay musicians, performers, authors, news publishers and journalists for the use of their work.

News publishers, among Google’s fiercest critics, have long urged governments to ensure that online platforms pay fair rewards for their content. Australia last year made such payments mandatory while Canada introduced similar legislation last month. Read more

“To date, we have agreements covering more than 300 national, local and specialist news publications in Germany, Hungary, France, Austria, the Netherlands and Ireland, with many ongoing discussions,” Solina Kunal, Director of News and Publishing Partnerships, said in a post seen by Reuters and expected to be published at a later date. Wednesday. The blog did not say how much publishers get paid.

Two-thirds of this group are German publishers including Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

“We are now announcing the launch of a new tool to pitch to thousands of other news publishers, starting from Germany and Hungary, and roll it out to other EU countries over the coming months,” Kunal said in the blog post.

The tool provides publishers with an extended news preview agreement that allows Google to display excerpts and thumbnails for a license fee.

Fu Yun Che reports. Editing by Lisa Schumaker

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