Google and the press industry have been at loggerheads for years | Alastair Pike/AFP via Getty Images

Google will pay some press publishers in Germany, Australia, Brazil

Senior search giant VP describes program as ‘major shift.’



Google will launch a licensing program later this year to pay local and national press publishers and has already signed deals with news organizations in Germany, Brazil and Australia, the company announced Thursday.

"We’ve heard loud and clear that we need to do more to support publishers around the world and that program is part of it," Google's Vice President for Product Management for News Brad Bender told POLITICO. 

"We’ll continue to comply with local laws," he said when asked how the program would interact with the EU copyright reform, which allows press publishers to request a fee from platforms displaying their content online.

Google and the press industry have been at loggerheads for years, including in Germany and Australia. In France, the tech giant initially refused to pay for licenses, leading to a showdown with the country's competition authority. (Axel Springer, co-owner of POLITICO Europe, is an active participant in the debate.)

The program, which will be part of Google's News and Discover products, will help participating news organizations to monetize their content. Google will also offer to pay for free access for users to read paywalled articles.

Bender described the licensing program as a "major shift" for the company.

In Germany, Google has already signed deals major newspapers such as Der Spiegel and Die Zeit in the context of the program. The selection of press publishers is not meant to be "exhaustive," Bender said.

The program is intended to be global and the tech company is currently discussing with other news organizations in half a dozen other unnamed countries.