Google’s parent company Alphabet announced today that after the Spanish government passed new legislation allowing media organizations to negotiate directly with Google, the company decided to relaunch Google News in Spain early next year.
In 2014, Google News Service withdrew from the Spanish market because the government passed a regulation requiring Alphabet and other news aggregation services to pay a collective licensing fee to these media even if they only display news headlines or abstracts from Spanish media.
Today, Fuencisla Clemares, Google’s Spanish regional manager, said in a statement: From the beginning of next year, Google News will provide links to some news stories. In the next few months Here, we will negotiate with publishers, hoping to reach a cooperation agreement.
On Tuesday, the Spanish government approved an EU copyright directive that allows third-party online news platforms to negotiate directly with content providers. This EU legislation (to be adopted by all EU member states) requires platforms such as Google and Facebook to share revenue with publishers, but also eliminates collective licensing fees and allows them to enter into individual or collective agreements with publishers.
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In this regard, Arcio Escolar, chairman of the CLABE Publishers Association, said that he is pleased with the government’s new legislation. The CLABE Publishers Association is made up of approximately 1,000 major online news organizations, including leading digital brands El Espanol and Eldiario.es.
In contrast, the AMI Media Association, which represents the conservative school of traditional media, supports the maintenance of the original system, and the association declined to comment on the government’s new regulations.