Google earned USD 4.7 billion from news in 2018: Study

WASHINGTON: Google made a whopping USD 4.7 billion from the work of journalists last year via search and Google News, taking a huge cut from the online ad revenue of media houses which lost a crucial source of income, resulting in many of them getting shrunk or closed, a media report said. News is a significant part of Google’s business, according to a study to be released on Monday by the News Media Alliance (NMA) which represents more than 2,000 newspapers across the US.

The journalists who create that content deserve a cut of that USD 4.7 billion, president and chief executive of the NMA David Chavern was quoted as saying by The New York Times.