Google gives up resistance, says it’s ready to pay publishers for high quality news

San Francisco: Google will pay partnered media publishers in three countries and offer some users free access to paywalled news sites, the tech giant said Thursday.

The announcement comes after legal battles in France and Australia over Google’s refusal to pay news organizations for content.

In a blog post the firm said they would launch “a licensing program to pay publishers for high-quality content for a new news experience” due to launch later this year.

Brad Bender, Google’s vice-president of product management, said they had been in discussions with partnered publishers—including the Spiegel Group in Germany, Schwartz media in Australia and Brazil’s Diarios Associados—for several months, “with more to come.”