Google Searches for Ways to Boost News Subscriptions

By Jack Nicas 

Google is working on new tools to help news organizations sell subscriptions, a move that could help ease its strained relationship with publishers.

The tech giant said it is testing changes to its "first-click-free" policy that allows access via Google search results to articles that require a subscription. Google might reduce the number of free articles users can access from three a day, said a person familiar with the plans. Google believes free sampling of articles helps sell subscriptions, the person said.

The Alphabet Inc. unit is testing tools with the New York Times and the Financial Times, such as sharing Google's data on which users are likely to buy subscriptions and using its online-payments system for subscriptions, the person said, adding that talks with publishers are ongoing and the changes might not happen. Any new tools are expected to be unveiled in the next few months.

Bloomberg News earlier reported on the new tools under development.

The rise of the internet hit much of the print-news business by causing sales of ads in printed products to plummet. Meanwhile, Google and Facebook Inc. together collect nearly half of global spending on digital ads, according to eMarketer. The U.S. digital-ad market grew by $12 billion last year, and the two tech giants accounted for more than 77% of that growth, eMarketer said.

As a result, publishers have had an uneasy and complicated relationship with Google and Facebook. Publishers provide much of the quality content that fuels the tech firms' online platforms, while those platforms drive traffic to publishers' websites. News organizations have been forced to rely more on subscriptions.

Last month, the News Media Alliance--a trade group representing about 2,000 organizations, including The Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones--asked Congress for a limited waiver from antitrust laws. They say the waiver would allow them to negotiate collectively with Google and Facebook for stronger intellectual-property protections, more support for digital-subscription models and a bigger share of revenue and customer data.

Meanwhile, Google and Facebook appear to be working to satisfy publishers' demands. Facebook is developing a tool to enable users to subscribe to news organizations via its mobile app. And Google has enabled publishers to put up paywalls for articles delivered through Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMPs, which are fast-loading and appear in Google search results on smartphones.

Google said in a statement that it has "been engaged in conversations with publishers on how we can build and expand on the efforts that we have had for a number of years to provide even more support for subscriptions."

Write to Jack Nicas at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 19, 2017 04:30 ET (08:30 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.