Google offers cash to Europe’s media

Google has pledged to give €150m (US$163m; £107m) to European news publishers and journalism-focused start-ups over the next three years.

The funds – which are part of a wider package – will be used to support the organisations’ efforts to earn money from their own online coverage.

The Financial Times, the Guardian, Spain’s El Pais and Germany’s Die Zeit are among those backing the initiative.

But several media groups that have been critical of Google are not involved.

Publications belonging to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Axel Springer are among those absent from a list of “founding partners”, although Google has said they are welcome to join.

The US company previously agreed to set up a similar fund to support French media organisations in 2013 in order to settle a dispute about its right to show headlines and text culled from their sites on its Google News facility.

At the time, analysts said the agreement “opened the door” to similar agreements in other countries where newspapers were also seeking licensing fees.

Organisations that do accept funds from the firm may need to assure their readers that they have taken steps to avoid a conflict of interest in their subsequent coverage of its activities.

Source: BBC

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