Google has announced that it has signed agreements with Irish news organisations, including breakingnews.ie, as part of a new initiative to support Irish media.
Seven publishing groups are taking part, including The Irish Times Group, Celtic Media and Journal Media, representing almost 40 publications with a mix of local, regional and national news organisations from across Ireland.
Google will license high-quality news content from these publishers for News Showcase, its new product experience and licensing programme for news.
News Showcase is a licensing programme to pay publishers for the use of high-quality content and is a continuation and expansion of previous programmes such as the Google News Initiative.
Google plans to roll out the initiative to readers in Ireland in the coming months.
'Trusted news sources'
Liam Kavanagh, managing director of The Irish Times Group, said the agreement with Google was “a welcome acknowledgement of the value of trusted news sources in modern democracies”.
“It means titles in The Irish Times Group have more support to provide high-quality, independent journalism to a wider audience,” he said.
The Irish Times Group has agreed terms with Google which will allow access to content from all titles in the group, through Google News Showcase when it launches in the Irish market later this year.
Within The Irish Times Group, the agreement covers The Irish Times, breakingnews.ie, The Irish Examiner, The Echo, Waterford News & Star, Carlow, Laois & Kildare Nationalist, Roscommon Herald and Western People titles.
Nearly 1,000 news publications globally have signed deals for News Showcase since last year, in countries including India, Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Australia, Czechia, Japan, Colombia, the UK, Austria and Argentina, with discussions underway in a number of other countries.
Google News Showcase is supported by Google’s $1 billion global investment in news.
Google director of online partnerships in Europe the Middle East and Asia, Anthony Nakache, said the company was “excited” to announce the new agreements with “these established, household titles of Irish media”.
He said Ireland would be one of the first countries in Europe to roll out News Showcase.
