Google has renewed its News Media Bargaining Code deals with large and small publishers alike. However, some of these new deals have clauses that allow them to be cancelled after just one year.
Google’s deals are estimated to be worth around $130 million in total. Meta, which spectacularly pulled out of its publisher deals earlier this year was thought to be footing a bill of around $70 million.
The search giant confirmed to The Australian Financial Review that it had signed deals with Times News Group, Solstice Media, Private Media, The Conversation, Women’s Agenda, Independent Media and more.
“Over the past three years, we’ve furthered our significant contribution to the Australian news industry by signing commercial agreements with more than 80 Australian news businesses, representing more than 200 outlets across the country,” said Google’s director of government affairs, Lucinda Longcroft.
“The majority of these outlets are regional or local.”
However, while Seven West Media and Nine Entertainment struck five-year deals with Google, smaller publishers were not so lucky.
Sources “close to Google’s new round of deals” but speaking to the AFR on condition of anonymity, said that the company has signed one-year deals that roll over.
News Corp has a global three-year deal with Google worth more than $AU150 million and is thought to have signed a one-year extension to its previous deal.
The sources said that this approach “made sense” for Google given the uncertainty of the Code’s future as the Albanese government mulls designating Meta — in effect, forcing it to strike commercial deals with publishers.
At the moment, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones is determining whether there is a bargaining power imbalance between Meta and the publishers on the basis of evidence from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and whether Meta has made a “significant contribution” to the sustainability of the Australian news industry.”
He has to give Meta 30 days’ notice whether he will make a decision to designate the company.
There are many indications of great unrest about Meta’s decision. Last week, The Daily Aus said that it had lost $450,000 worth of commercial advertising agreements with clients due to Meta’s previous threat it could ban the distribution of news on its platform.
Entertainment, food and drink and lifestyle website Broadsheet reported a similarly bleak outlook if Meta blocked news from its platforms.
“This will result in devastating consequences for Broadsheet’s business and publishing businesses like ours. We estimate that Broadsheet would lose up to 52 per cent of its revenue, which would make it nearly impossible for the business to survive,” Broadsheet said in a submission to the government.
In March, when Meta pulled out of its deals, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the decision was “not the Australian way”.
Google, meanwhile, has started to de-prioritise news in its search rankings in favour of sites such as Reddit and Quora. That change has had a significant impact on the traffic received by online publishers.