Pay in India, too, and all publishers : The Economic Times Editorial

It is welcome that Google has decided to pay for the news articles it carries, starting with publications in three countries: Australia, Brazil and Germany. India must be added to the list of countries where Google pays for the articles it aggregates, and it must pay for all publications and all articles. The bigger the media organisation, the larger their content output and the greater their legitimate share of advertising revenue lost to aggregators. France and Australia have put in place regulation requiring content aggregators to share revenue with those who generate the content, using which they attract eyeballs and mop up advertising revenue. India, too, must put in place such legal obligation and enforce the rule.

For Google to say that it will pay for high-quality content has the potential for obfuscation. If Google means to convey to readers that it would pay for high-quality stories that are worth reading and give them free access, averting the need for readers to directly subscribe to the news sites from which Google sources the stories, it would do a disservice to the news gathering business. On the other hand, if Google is using its high-quality condition as a bargaining chip with media companies, leading on to realistic deals that benefit both media companies and Google, it would be more productive. The simple reality is that gathering news, editorially validating the information gathered, giving it context and perspective, costs money. Advertisers who use the media companies to reach wide audiences pay for much of the cost, in the traditional media business model. Otherwise, consumers would have to pay far more for their daily dose of news and insight.

In the online world, the bulk of advertising is cornered by just two tech giants, Google and Facebook. That leaves very little to professional media companies that invest in newsrooms and generate the content that attract audiences to aggregators like Google and Facebook. It is wholly unfair, and further, self-defeating, to deny advertising revenue to those who generate the content.

Courtesy - The Economic Times.

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