• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 29, 2023

After months of negotiation and debate, Google will pay Canadian publishers $100 million Canadian per year for use of its news content on the Google search platform. 

The News/Media Alliance hailed the deal, which was negotiated dowm from $172 million demanded by the Canadian government. 

Meta is persisting in its battle against Canada, blocking all news content in the country. 

Canada’s Online News Act, requiring payment to news publishers, will take effect in December.

“This is a very big win for Canadian news publishers and shows that Google will commit to paying fair market value for quality journalism,” states Danielle Coffey, News/Media Alliance president & CEO.

Coffee adds, “This proves, yet again, that legislation is the only path to sustained right to payment for the fair market value of our quality content. The U.S. must stand up for our vibrant journalism industry and not fall behind other countries.”

Google has released a statement, saying, "While we work with the government through the exemption process based on the regulations that will be published shortly, we will continue sending valuable traffic to Canadian publishers."

Several other countries have passed legislation requiring the tech platforms to pay news publishers, including Australia, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

In addition, News/Media Alliance feels that this deal will create momentum for the California Journalism Preservation Act (AB 886) and the federal Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) (S.1094).

The News/Media Alliance argues that the tech platforms, which are the dominant distributors of news content, reap “tremendous financial benefit without compensation to those who create the content.”