Google: ‘Our relationship with the news industry is misunderstood, we’ve always been a friend’
Google has moved to quell concerns it is a threat to the news industry, underlining the launch of its pan-European charm offensive on publishers today (28 April) while revealing regret at previous failed efforts to get the industry on-side.
The technology business has no intention of creating news. Instead it wants to work as a partner with publishers of all size. That was the message Google’s president of strategic partnerships for Europe, Carlo D’Asaro Biondo delivered when he unveiled the Digital News Initiative (DNI) at the Financial Times Media Conference this morning.
Formed in partnership with the broadsheet along with several others (see below), D’Asaro Biondo stressed that the collaborative effort would right the wrongs of past efforts. Media owners have criticised the company of late for its perceived attempts to squeeze unauthorised revenue from their content, an issue of particular importance in Europe where the breadth of languages makes it harder for publishers to carve out revenue streams internationally.
Through DNI, Google wants to curb these concerns by championing high-quality journalism through technology and innovation on three fronts; the first is through product development, which will see it create formats and tools aimed at increasing revenue, traffic and audience engagement.
Second, Google will upscale investment in training and research, primarily through its News Lab, created to train newsrooms across Europe. The business is also concocting training programmes with a number of journalism organisations including the European Journalism Centre and the Global Editors Network.
It is also working with the Reuters Institute in Oxford to bolster next year’s version of its annual snapshot of the digital news landscape by expanding it to 20 countries. Previously the global survey covered consumers in 10 markets including the UK and Spain.
The training aspect will also be backed by a grants programme for academic institutions to conduct research in digital journalism as well as an extension of the Google Journalism Fellowship scheme to Europe. The scheme is for students interested in using technology to get news articles in the ether.
The third and final part of Google’s plan is a €150m kitty to fund innovative projects from publishers across Europe over the next three years. Publishers bemoan their ability to take risks in cost-focused environments and Google believes its own contributions could go some way to mending its tainted perceptions within parts of the industry.
"I firmly believe that Google has always wanted to be a friend and partner to the news industry, but I also accept we’ve made some mistakes along the way, admitted D’Asaro Biondo. “Over the years, Google’s relationship with news and the news industry has often been misunderstood and - dare I say it - sometimes misreported.”
To clarify the point, he pointed to instances where early manifestations of Google’s DNI scheme had benefited publishers. French publisher Le Monde recently introduced a new mobile and tablet platform through its work with Google, which D’Asaro Biondo was keen to stress had “significantly improved” app engagement, increasing page views and time spent. He then singled out its involvement in helping Slate.fr’s - a newsreader funded by native ads, that surfaces and curates tending content on social networks.
“I should also make it clear that much as we admire quality journalism we have no plans to get involved in creating or commissioning news. Although we seem to be quite good at generating it,” D’Asaro Biondo said.
Referring to growing criticisms that Google is muscling in on publishers’ content, he said: “You can 'opt out' of Google News if you don't like it."
Through search and news, the business sends over 10 billion visits for free to publishers worldwide each month. And through its advertising platforms, such as AdSense, it shared $10bn with publishers globally in 2014.
Meanwhile Facebook has been causing a lot of anxiety in the news industry because it is asking publishers to post content directly on its site. The fear from some media owners, is that while broadening the reach of their content that ultimately it will cannibalise their traffic as more people view news content from within the social network’s walled garden. Earlier this month, Facebook told The Drum that it had no plans to do this.
While Google appears to be moving in the opposite direction to its rival on the route to better relations with news outfits, the business knows it needs to work fast to get them on side with DNI if it is to make their content a more prominent part of its offering. The explosion of content in recent years has sharpened the role of publishers in the eyes of marketers, which has jostled the likes of Google, Facebook and Yahoo into doing more to woo them with the promise of stronger targeting and better monetisation.
D’Asaro Biondo said: “What we’ve learned is that you can’t work with the industry in isolation. I think when we started Google News five years ago, maybe we didn’t represent the [industry] in the way we should have or collaborated better. Technology can provide signifncant opportunities for the news industry.
“But I can’t promise it will be smooth. At Google we know that innovation is never a linear process. It’s always messy and often happens in random ways. Sometimes - often - we fail.”
Publishers to take part in the Digital News Initiative are as follows:
- The Guardian and The Financial Times here in the UK
- Die Zeit and FAZ from Germany
- Les Echos from France
- La Stampa from Italy
- El Pais from Spain
- NRC Media from the Netherlands
It is not a closed shop, however, and other media owners will be able to join.