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Google will pay publishers in bid to compete with Apple News

Allison Matyus
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Google announced plans for a new program to pay publishers for high-quality news content, which would allow them to compete with Apple News. 

Google’s program, which rolls out later this year, aims to help local and national publications globally. Similar to Apple News’ concept, Google’s initiative would allow it to license a select number of articles from news partners.

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“This program will help participating publishers monetize their content through an enhanced storytelling experience that lets people go deeper into more complex stories, stay informed and be exposed to a world of different issues and interests,” wrote Brad Bender, Google’s vice president of product management, in the announcement on Thursday, June 25. 

stock photo newspapers delivered at doorway
Steve Buissinne/Pixabay

To allow people more access to news, Bender also said that in some cases, Google would offer to pay for free access for users to read articles locked behind a paywall. 

Right now, the program has already partnered with news outlets in Germany, Australia, and Brazil. Bender said that the new news experience would live on Google News and Google Discover. 

While there are little details in Thursday’s announcement about how the program would be executed, on the surface, it sounds similar to Apple News’ premium subscription option. 

Apple News aggregates news articles in its mobile app and allows users to subscribe to their preferred publications, but there’s also a paid subscription option called Apple News+. The subscription gives users access to premium news content from Apple’s partnered publications.

Google already has a Google News app that relies on artificial intelligence to bring you the news you care most about, but it sounds like Google is focusing the new program on premium and paywalled content that people wouldn’t necessarily otherwise see. 

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