Google made US$4.7 billion from news industry in 2018

It looks like Google has got a pretty good racket going on from its search and news functionality.

According to a study by the News Media Alliance, the company made US$4.7 billion from the work of news publishers via its services in 2018.

David Chavern, the president and chief executive of the alliance, says journalists deserve a cut of that US$4.7 billion.

“They make money off this arrangement,” Mr. Chavern said, “and there needs to be a better outcome for news publishers.”

The New York Times states that the News Media Alliance believes the estimate for Google’s income is conservative.

Moreover, it does not take into account the value of the personal data the company collects on consumers every time they click on an article as well.

Speaking to the publication, Terrance C.Z. Egger, the chief executive of Philadelphia Inquirer PBC believes that the current dynamics in the relationship between the platforms and the industry are devastating.

The study estimates that at least 40 percent of the clicks on the platform’s trending queries are for news.

Since Google does not pay for the content, it often presents the headlines from these outlets in its exact copy.

Egger believes its time tech giants like to share the revenue or for publishers to get paid for the content that they produce.

The NYT states that between Alphabet and Facebook, who are major distributors for news publishers, both of them carry more than 80 percent of external traffic to various sites.

Unfortunately, unlike the good old days where media barons controlled how their publications collected the ad income, the current state of affairs is very different.

These tech giants act like middle men, and they take a huge proportion of the revenue that is generated from ad sales.

This is why legacy businesses in the industry have been bleeding cash and are all headed for closure.

Chavern puts it quite succintly, “the big tech companies like this business, its a good business, where you write for them.”

Source: New York Times

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