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
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Knowledge
Repository
Khaitan & Co
No comments:
Post a Comment