Google Searches for Ways to Boost News Subscriptions
August 19 2017 - 3:45AM
Dow Jones News
By Jack Nicas
Google is working on new tools to help news organizations sell
subscriptions, a move that could help ease its strained
relationship with publishers.
The tech giant said it is testing changes to its
"first-click-free" policy that allows access via Google search
results to articles that require a subscription. Google might
reduce the number of free articles users can access from three a
day, said a person familiar with the plans. Google believes free
sampling of articles helps sell subscriptions, the person said.
The Alphabet Inc. unit is testing tools with the New York Times
and the Financial Times, such as sharing Google's data on which
users are likely to buy subscriptions and using its online-payments
system for subscriptions, the person said, adding that talks with
publishers are ongoing and the changes might not happen. Any new
tools are expected to be unveiled in the next few months.
Bloomberg News earlier reported on the new tools under
development.
The rise of the internet hit much of the print-news business by
causing sales of ads in printed products to plummet. Meanwhile,
Google and Facebook Inc. together collect nearly half of global
spending on digital ads, according to eMarketer. The U.S.
digital-ad market grew by $12 billion last year, and the two tech
giants accounted for more than 77% of that growth, eMarketer
said.
As a result, publishers have had an uneasy and complicated
relationship with Google and Facebook. Publishers provide much of
the quality content that fuels the tech firms' online platforms,
while those platforms drive traffic to publishers' websites. News
organizations have been forced to rely more on subscriptions.
Last month, the News Media Alliance--a trade group representing
about 2,000 organizations, including The Wall Street Journal
publisher Dow Jones--asked Congress for a limited waiver from
antitrust laws. They say the waiver would allow them to negotiate
collectively with Google and Facebook for stronger
intellectual-property protections, more support for
digital-subscription models and a bigger share of revenue and
customer data.
Meanwhile, Google and Facebook appear to be working to satisfy
publishers' demands. Facebook is developing a tool to enable users
to subscribe to news organizations via its mobile app. And Google
has enabled publishers to put up paywalls for articles delivered
through Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMPs, which are
fast-loading and appear in Google search results on
smartphones.
Google said in a statement that it has "been engaged in
conversations with publishers on how we can build and expand on the
efforts that we have had for a number of years to provide even more
support for subscriptions."
Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 19, 2017 04:30 ET (08:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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