More on the Google News – AP Content Deal
Here are more details from Reuters: “It’s a licensing agreement that lets us use original AP content in new ways than we have used in the past for Google News,” Google spokeswoman Sonya Boralv said.
AP spokesman Jack Stokes confirmed the licensing deal, but provided no further details.
And per the WSJ (sub. req’d): It appears that Google and AP structured their latest deal in a way that compensated AP for use of its material but avoided setting a direct precedent for Google having to pay other news organizations for the content Google links to on Google News.
[Google spokesperson Sonya Borlav] said that the license in this agreement provides for “new uses of original AP content for features and products we will introduce in the future,” adding that, “Google News is fully consistent with fair use and always has been.”
Google is in discussions with other news outlets over both current and archived content, though the stage of those talks isn’t clear.
This is potentially good news for content producers. But note that Google is reserving the right to crawl and not pay for content.
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Greg Sterling is the founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, a consulting and research firm focused on online consumer and advertiser behavior and the relationship between the Internet and traditional media, with an emphasis on the local marketplace.
