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Google to Pay Australia Media Company to Host News Material

Phil Mercer

   SYDNEY - The information technology giantGooglehas agreed to pay an
   Australian media company to host news material ahead of a planned
   mandatory bargaining code.

   Google's deal with Seven West Media, which publishes the
   Perth-basedWest Australiannewspaper and other titles, is the first of
   seven such arrangements the tech giant is expected to make in
   Australia.

   A lawbeing introduced this week in federal parliament in Canberra would
   require large technology companies to pay to use Australian news
   stories.

   The legislation would make Australia the first country to force big
   tech firms to pay for news content.

   Google, which had called the law unworkable, and Facebook have
   threatened to downgrade their services to Australians or even walk
   away.They have argued that by using stories from other publishers they
   generate moreinternet traffic for the websites run by traditional media
   outlets.

   But in an apparent softening of that stance, Google has reached an
   agreement with Seven West Media, reportedly worth $23milliona year.

   Belinda Barnett is a lecturer in media at Swinburne University of
   Technology, a public research university based in Melbourne.She
   believes it is a good result for the Australian company.

   "It does sound like they have come up with a fairly lucrative deal for
   them,around AUD$30million, but that figure has not been confirmed
   yet.Seven West owns quite a lot of regional outlets as well.So, it has
   the potential to benefit the regional news outlets that itownsand the
   journalists employed by them,"Barnett said.

   The Australian government said a deal with Facebook was "very close."

   As their advertising revenues collapsed, traditional broadcasting and
   publishing companies have for years complained that social media
   platforms havebenefited from their quality reporting without paying for
   it.

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