(Washington) American digital giant Google announced Friday the launch of its News Showcase application in the United States, which will allow local news publishers to highlight their content on Google News and Google Discover in the form of small “showcases”.
The service had launched globally in October 2020, but was not yet available in the United States.
According to Google, “News Showcase will launch in the US over the summer in partnership with over 150 publications, 90% local or regional” based in 39 of the 50 US states.
Among the main national media, the Wall Street Journal or the news agencies Bloomberg, Reuters and Associated Press are among the signatories.
Google has also announced that it has reached an agreement, without specifying the amount, with five organizations representing nearly a thousand local media across the United States.
The agreement provides for remuneration for the content that will be put online, as well as training programs, in particular to develop digital uses.
Google Showcase has already been deployed, according to the group, in around twenty countries, mainly in Europe, including France last October.
The launch of this service helped to pacify relations between the press and the group around the world, with publishers regularly accusing the Californian group of using their content in its search engine without paying the right price.
Concretely, the application allows press publishers to offer, in the results of Google News or on Google Discover, small windows presenting several contents of their sites, in addition to the content corresponding directly to the search of the Internet user.
A sort of small showcase of their editorial production of the day, which they fully control and for which they are paid by the American group.
Google initially wanted Google News Showcase to serve as an enforcement vehicle for the new European legislation on neighboring rights, which obliges it to remunerate press publishers for content picked up by its search engine.
But the French Competition Authority had banged its fist on the table in July 2021, forcing Google to separate the two subjects.
