Google considers revamped news service: Helping news organizations generate revenue

Beijing time April 28 Morning news, Google's European strategic cooperation director Caro Dasaro Andos (Carlo D ' Asaro Biondo) in an interview with the Financial Times, Google considered the controversial Google News service overhaul, to help struggling publishers online income generation.

The comments come at a time when Google and 8 big European press groups have announced alliances to promote the digital skills and business models of publishers.

The project, known as "digital News", will be used by Google to launch product development with 8 newspaper groups, provide digital skills training and allocate € 150 million to digital projects over the next 3 years. The Financial Times, the Guardian, the Echo of France, the Spanish national newspaper and the German Times weekly have all participated in the project.

Asked if Google was ready to adjust its platform to help the news industry, not just to boost the digital skills of its publishers, Andos said: "These areas will be covered, I want to contribute more to publishers, and I know we can provide them with more help." ”

Newspaper companies have criticized Google news for years, accusing it of plundering the flow of news sites, leading to the disadvantage of services that use online subscription models. The company closed its Google news site in Spain after a new law was launched last year requiring the company to pay for all copyrighted content.

Google is also facing an unfavorable situation in Europe after the "Prism Gate" was unveiled, and the European Commission just launched a formal antitrust lawsuit against it earlier this month.

Google is considering how to be friendlier to content sites that use the toll wall, but many companies complain that the company's advertising business model is hurting it.

"Subscription or content on demand is one of the areas we want to develop." "said Beyonce Andos. He added that the company would also give higher weights to news sites with high visibility and expertise in some areas of the search engine.

But he added: "It needs to be clear that the direction is not what we decide, but what the consumer decides." If we believe that consumers are interested in different models or on an as-needed basis, they will be more willing to develop such technologies. ”

As Google's main critic, Germany's Springer and American News Corp have not been involved in the news program. But Andos said Google would still welcome them in the future, believing that pragmatic ideas would always win, and that Google would continue to win the trust it deserved.

The other three founding members include Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Dutch NRC media and La Stampa of Italy.