Last year, as reports of the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, there was an overwhelming amount of information about the new virus. Once the national lockdown was announced in Spain, my local and national news consumption skyrocketed as I looked for reliable information on the evolving situation. From the latest curfews in my hometown to whether public health restrictions allowed my family of five to sit down at a restaurant, news media provided critical information about the impact of the pandemic in my community.
One way people find news and information about important events is through Google News, a dedicated site and app which provides links to news stories. It helps readers find news from trustworthy and authoritative sources, from the world’s biggest news websites to small, local and specialist publications, and directs them to the publishers’ websites when they click on links. For publishers, Google News provides a valuable way for their content to be discovered by readers and to help grow their business by turning readers into subscribers.
This service is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world — but not in Spain.
Google News returns to Spain
In 2014, we closed Google News in Spain due to local legislation. Today, we’re announcing that Google News will soon be available once again in Spain. We made this decision as a result of a new Royal Decree implementing the European Copyright Directive, introduced today by the Spanish government.
This is good news for readers in Spain. Starting early next year, Google News will provide links to useful and relevant news stories, from a wide range of sources, to help people in Spain find more information about current events and to dive deeper into those stories. Moreover, Google News helps people get more information from more news sources; a key tool in the fight against misinformation. For journalists and publishers, Google News helps them be discovered by more readers and generate valuable free traffic.
Working with news publishers
Along with the return of Google News, the new copyright law allows Spanish media outlets — big and small — to make their own decisions about how their content can be discovered and how they want to make money with that content. Over the coming months, we will be working with publishers to reach agreements which cover their rights under the new law.
Alongside this, we will work towards bringing Google News Showcase to Spain, a licensing program and new product experience which pays publishers to curate content for story panels across Google News and Discover.
Sustainable journalism
We believe that technology companies, news organizations and governments need to collaborate to enable a strong future for journalism. Over the years, we’ve taken many steps to support the evolution and long-term sustainability of journalism, from sending billions of visits every month to news websites globally to improving the ways that publishers who choose to be included in products like Google Search and News appear to readers, and the Google News Initiative’s efforts to help publishers transform their business models and spur growth.
We’ve also helped publishers make money by providing tools and technology that help them run digital advertising on their websites and apps. Every year, we pay out billions of dollars directly to the publishing partners in our ad network. In Spain, between 2018 to 2020, Google paid out more than $130 million to the top five news publisher partners in our ad network.
We are thrilled that we will soon be able to bring Google News back to Spain and help connect people with more news and information that matters to them and their community. To read more about how we support Spanish publishers in Spain, please visit: g.co/ApoyandoMediosEspaña
