Google Checkout Could Power Media And Newspaper Pay Walls

Google is getting closer to launching a full-scale pay wall system for publishers. A spokesperson for the Mountain View, Calif. tech company on Sunday acknowledged ongoing discussions with news organizations that could include helping with "technology to power any subscription services they may be thinking of building."

Google Checkout could become the perfect tool for publishers looking to add a pay wall for content. It provides a one-click tool to complete the process to pay for content on PC, mobile and tablet devices. And with falling revenue and diminished resources, publishers need to find a way to revive the newspaper industry.

Dubbed Newspass, according to the Italian online publication La Repubblica.it, the platform would give publishers a pay wall. La Repubblica.it reports that Google has contacted publishers to test the platform. It's an effort for Google to become partners with publishers, especially in Italy where action by antitrust authorities has flared.

"Our aim, as with all Google products, is to reach as broad a global audience as possible," says a spokesperson for the Mountain View, Calif. tech company. Although neither confirming or denying reports, the spokesperson told MediaPost that Google has 'nothing specific to announce at this time."

Reports in 2009 describe an ecommerce plan in early stages of production that could prove relevant for news and media companies that want to charge for content.

Krishna Bharat created Google News as a search engine in response to Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City's twin towers. He wanted a way to aggregate the news from many sources without violating copyright laws.

While reading news from Web publishers and portals, he discovered that there was no efficient way to find coverage of the same topic from different sources. "It seemed fundamentally inefficient," Bharat told Mediashift, a Publish Broadcasting Service. Structuring links helped to build Google News, which was not intended to cannibalize news-based Web portals, but act as a tease, or link, to lead readers to the source.

1 comment about "Google Checkout Could Power Media And Newspaper Pay Walls ".
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  1. Jonathan Mirow from BroadbandVideo, Inc., June 22, 2010 at 1:14 p.m.

    So the newspapers blame Google (et al.) for canabalizing their content end essentially driving them out of business - so Google responds by giving them a paywall system so they can commit online suicide faster. Brilliant. Google is just freekin' brilliant.

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