CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA (AP) – Seven West Media has become the largest Australian media business to reach an agreement with Google to pay for journalism in a partnership announced Monday before the nation’s parliament considers a bill to force digital giants to pay for news.
Google and the publicly quoted online television, press and online publications company announced that they had agreed on a “long-term partnership” following the weekend discussions that Australian government ministers had with the media executives, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google.
Kerry Stokes, president of Seven West Media, which owns 21 publications, thanked the Australian government and competition regulator for its proposal.
“His outstanding leadership in implementing the proposed bargaining code for the media has made it possible for us to conclude negotiations that lead to a fair payment and guarantee our digital future,” Stokes said in a statement.
“Negotiations with Google recognize the value of quality and original journalism across the country and in particular in regional areas,” Stokes added.
The deal was made with Google’s model, News Showcase. Google has reached out to paid offers with more than 450 posts worldwide since the News Showcase was launched in October.
Google announced two weeks ago that it had started paying for seven much smaller Australian websites on the News Showcase.
Mel Silva, Google’s regional director, said: “We are proud to support original, trusted and quality journalism and are delighted to welcome Seven West Media today as a leading Australian publishing partner to join Google News Showcase “.
The collaboration meant a substantial investment for Google in journalism not only in metropolitan areas, but in smaller communities, he added.
Neither Google nor Seven West Media mentioned how much the deal was worth. Rival media company Nine Entertainment reported, citing unnamed industry sources, that it was worth more than A $ 30 million ($ 23 million) a year.
Prior to the announcement, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg had said that Google and Facebook were on the verge of reaching trade agreements, “which could be of real benefit to the national media landscape and see financially rewarded journalists for generating original content, such as it should be”.
Google and Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Frydenberg’s discussions with its leaders.
Google has stepped up its campaign against the proposed law, and told the Senate committee that it examined it that the platform would likely make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the code were introduced.
Facebook has threatened to block Australians from sharing news if the platform was forced to pay for the news.
While digital giants can bear the likely cost of paying for the Australian news they link to, they are concerned about the international precedent Australia could set.
Google has faced pressure from authorities elsewhere to pay for the news. Last month he signed an agreement with a group of French publishers, paving the way for the company to make digital copyright payments. Under the agreement, Google will negotiate individual license offers with newspapers, with payments based on factors such as the amount published daily and the monthly traffic to the website.
In Australia, platforms can make payment offers with media companies before the code is legislated.
The legislation would create an arbitral tribunal to make binding payment decisions in cases where a news platform and business cannot agree on the price of the news.
Typically, the board accepts the best offer from the platform or publisher, and rarely sets an intermediate price.
This should deter both platform and news companies from making unrealistic claims.