{"id":225168,"date":"2017-08-18T20:33:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T18:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=225168"},"modified":"2017-08-18T20:38:04","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T18:38:04","slug":"google-offers-subscription-tools-for-publishers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/225168-google-offers-subscription-tools-for-publishers.html","title":{"rendered":"Google offers subscription tools for publishers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google is developing new tools designed to boost subscriptions for news publishers. It follows a similar olive branch from Facebook Inc. to an industry that has seen the digital behemoths take over the online advertising market.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s latest foray arrives on three fronts. The first is a revamp of its feature, called \u201cfirst click free,\u201d\u00a0that allows readers to access articles from subscription publications through search.\u00a0Google is also exploring publishers\u2019 tools around online payments and targeting potential subscribers. It\u2019s all part of Google\u2019s broader effort to keep consumers and content-makers returning to the web, the lifeblood of its ads business.<\/p>\n

Initially, Google is testing the tools with New York Times Co. and the Financial Times. But Richard Gingras, Google\u2019s vice president for news, said the search giant is talking to dozens of other outlets as media companies move toward online subscription models.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear from news publishers that they can\u2019t live on advertising alone,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cBut it\u2019s also clear that we\u2019re seeing a shift in a market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Media companies are focused intently on online subscriptions as print ads shrivel and digital ad spending consolidates with Facebook and Google, which together this year will garner more than 60 percent of the $83 billion market, according to EMarketer. In response, both digital platforms, which have rocky relationships with publishers, are introducing products catered to them. Facebook said last month it was working to add subscription tools inside its Instant Articles program, which hosts news articles in its mobile app.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s version, called Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP, enables news websites to load more quickly inside of search. With the new tools, Google is looking at ways to let publishers identify who may subscribe, determine how much readers would pay and speed up the process.<\/p>\n

Gingras said the new effort would involve Google\u2019s mobile payment services and its gargantuan ad targeting apparatus, although he didn\u2019t offer specifics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an area, clearly, where our knowledge about our users can be brought to bear,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no singular subscription strategy that will work for each publisher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gingras declined to say if or how the company would be sharing revenue with publishers. Kinsey Wilson, an adviser to Mark Thompson, president and chief executive officer of The New York Times, said the media company hasn\u2019t discussed revenue terms with Google yet.<\/p>\n

To date, publishers have favored Google\u2019s mobile publishing tools, which run on the web using open-source software. \u201cFacebook\u2019s environment is a Facebook-hosted walled garden,\u201d Wilson said. The social network, however, tends to be a far bigger driver of web traffic and, thus, an irresistible partner for the media companies.<\/p>\n

Some publishers with subscription paywalls are concerned about Google\u2019s search policy. If publishers sign up, they can bump up their articles high in search results, which otherwise bury pages that can\u2019t be accessed for free. In return, they must give non-subscribers access to at least three articles a day for free. Right now, Google and the New York Times have been testing ways to drop that number down, Wilson said. The product changes are expected to come next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly results are that there is some flexibility here,\u201d Wilson said. Sales from subscriptions gained 13.9 percent for his company during the second quarter while ad revenue rose 0.8 percent.<\/p>\n

News Corp.\u2019s Wall Street Journal dropped out of Google\u2019s first click free program in February. After the newspaper ended the program, subscriptions ticked up, but traffic from Google fell off a cliff. The publisher told Bloomberg News that the policy \u201cdiscriminated\u201d against paid news sites.<\/p>\n

Gingras said the policy was designed to help publishers while providing search users accessible information. \u201cThey chose to go down that path,\u201d he said of the Wall Street Journal. \u201cThey were aware of the possible risks of doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an earnings call earlier in August, News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson told investors that the company was working with both Facebook and Google on digital subscription products.<\/p>\n

Now read:\u00a0Top trends on Google South Africa this week<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google is developing new tools designed to boost subscriptions for news publishers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":152157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[167],"class_list":["post-225168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-google"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225170,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225168\/revisions\/225170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}