Google reaches agreement to pay French publishers for content

Google has reached a first-of-its-kind agreement to pay French publishers for web content.

The search giant and French publishers’ lobby’s deal will pave the way for individual licensing agreements for French publications, and aims to provide a sustainable way for them to bring in revenue

The deal will be closely watched by other platforms such as Facebook, a lawyer involved in the talks said.

Google and the Alliance de la presse d’information générale (APIG) said that the framework included criteria such as the daily volume of publications, monthly internet traffic and “contribution to political and general information”.

A Google spokesperson said that the deals the search giant has signed with national daily newspapers Le Monde and Le Figaro both take into account the framework agreed with APIG.

Google last fall announced a plan to pay news publishers for content through a new product called Google News Showcase, but so far it is only available in Brazil and Germany.

Though it previously pledged to pay out $1 billion to publishers through the Showcase, Google did not say how much money APIG’s members might receive as a result of the agreement. Details on how the payments would be calculated were not disclosed.

The deal follows months of bargaining between Google, French publishers and news agencies over how to apply revamped EU copyright rules, which allow publishers to demand a fee from online platforms showing extracts of their news.

The world’s biggest search engine initially fought against the idea of paying publishers for content, saying their websites benefited from greater traffic brought by Google.

WIth Post wires.