Google and AP, often seen at odds, reach new deal

SAN FRANCISCO — Google Inc. and the Associated Press
on Monday said they have reached a new licensing agreement that will
allow the Internet search giant to continue to host the news service’s
content.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. But it marks a new turn in the high-profile relationship between Google,
a key gatekeeper of the Internet, and the AP, which has raised
criticisms in the past about the way online firms are able to benefit
from the stories that it produces.

The agreement also follows a similar deal inked between the AP and Google rival Yahoo Inc., which was disclosed earlier this year.

The fees paid by partners for use of AP content average roughly $200,000 annually, while larger firms tend to pay well north of $1 million per year. Paul Colford, the AP’s director of media relations, declined to comment on fees to be paid by Google as part of the new arrangement.

A Google spokesman referred to a published statement by Josh Cohen, a Google
senior business product manager, which referred to “future
collaborations” between the company and the AP that will stem from the
recently signed agreement.

“Google and AP can work together to create a better user experience and new revenue opportunities,” Cohen wrote.

In a statement, the AP added that the companies will
“work together in a number of new areas, such as ways to improve
discovery and distribution of news.”

Google has in the past developed features such as the “Living Stories” project with the New York Times and Washington Post, which provides an easier way to navigate through a longer-term, ongoing story in one online location.

Google has a limited number of content-hosting arrangements with partners, generally limited to large news organizations.

The new agreement reached with the AP is actually an extension of an arrangement that dates back to 2007, when Google
announced a “hosted news” service that would enable it to display
stories from the AP and others that include online advertising.

News organizations’ relative lack of clout online compared to Google has caused some consternation among news executives.

In a statement made publicly late last year, AP Chief Executive Tom Curley suggested that the news cooperative might sell exclusive access to some
AP stories to Internet news sites, at least for a limited period after
they’re published.

But such statements haven’t been aired in many months, and related arrangements wouldn’t generally conform to Google’s support for open access to information online. The AP’s Colford declined to comment.

Google has sought
to allay the concerns of news organizations that see the Internet
search giant wielding enormous influence over readers, without properly
compensating the original creators of news content.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt told an audience at the Newspaper Association of America’s
annual convention last year that the conflict portrayed between his
company and news organizations is often overblown. “We have a very,
very successful deal with the AP, and hopefully that will continue for
many years,” Schmidt said at the time.

However, other large news organizations have
explored ways of freeing themselves of dependence on online references
to their stories made through Google’s popular search service.

According to published data, Google regularly accounts for a large percentage of Internet traffic to news Web sites.

Last year, reports surfaced that News Corp. was exploring the possibility of shifting its newspaper content away from Google, and placing it on Microsoft Corp.’s search index, in exchange for a fee.

MarketWatch, the publisher of this report, is a News Corp. property.

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