CANBERRA, Australia – Seven West Media has become the largest Australian news media company to negotiate a deal with Google to pay for journalism in a partnership announced Monday before the national parliament is considering draft bills to force digital giants to pay for news.
Google and the publicly traded television, print and online publisher jointly announced that they had agreed on a “long-term partnership” following talks over the weekend Australian government ministers had with media executives, Facebook FB,
CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc. GOOGL,
GOOG,
and its subsidiary Google.
Kerry Stokes, Chairman of Seven West Media, which owns 21 publications, thanked the government and the Australian Competition Authority for their proposal.
“Their excellent leadership in implementing the proposed news media negotiation code has allowed us to finalize negotiations that will result in fair pay and ensure our digital future,” Stokes said in a statement.
“Negotiations with Google recognize the value of quality and original journalism across the country and in regional areas in particular,” added Stokes.
The deal was struck under Google’s proprietary model, News Showcase. Since the launch of News Showcase in October, Google has signed payment agreements with more than 450 publications around the world.
Google announced two weeks ago that it had started paying seven much smaller Australian websites under News Showcase.
Google Regional Director Mel Silva said: “We are proud to support original, trusted and quality journalism and are pleased to welcome Seven West Media today as a major Australian publishing company to join Google News Showcase.”
The partnership was a substantial investment for Google in journalism, not just in urban areas but smaller communities as well, she 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 30 million Australian dollars ($ 23 million) a year.
Before the announcement, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg had said that Google and Facebook were close to commercial deals, “which could really benefit the domestic media landscape and reward journalists financially for generating original content, as it should be.”
Google and Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Frydenberg’s discussions with their leaders.
Google has stepped up its campaign against the proposed law by telling the Senate committee that conducted the investigation that the platform would likely make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the code were entered.
Facebook has threatened to stop Australians from sharing news if the platform were to pay for news.
While the digital giants can afford the likely cost of paying for the Australian news to which they link, they are concerned about the international precedent Australia could set.
Google has been pressured by authorities elsewhere to pay for news. Last month, it signed a deal with a group of French publishers, paving the way for digital copyrights. Under the agreement, Google negotiates individual licensing agreements with newspapers, where payments are based on factors such as published daily and monthly internet traffic.
In Australia, the platforms can enter into payment agreements with media companies before the code is legally established.
The legislation would create an arbitration panel to make binding payment decisions in cases where a platform and a news company cannot agree on a price for news.
The panel usually accepted the best offer from the platform or publisher and only rarely set a price in between.
This should discourage both the platforms and the news companies from making unrealistic demands.