Friday, December 12, 2014

Google News Spain to Close in Mid-December Ahead of New Law

12/12/2014

SAN FRANCISCO – U.S. Google has announced that it will close its news edition in Spain, Google News Spain, on Dec. 16, explaining that the service will be no longer be possible due to a new intellectual property law which takes effect next month.

“So it’s with real sadness that on December 16 we’ll remove Spanish publishers from Google News, and close Google News Spain,” Google News chief Richard Gingras wrote on the company’s blog on Wednesday.

“This new legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not,” Gingras added.

He explained that with the new law the service was not sustainable and makes no money anyway as the site carries no advertising.

The Google official stressed that for centuries publishers were limited in how widely they could distribute the printed page.

“The Internet changed all that, creating tremendous opportunities but also real challenges for publishers as competition both for readers’ attention and for advertising euros increased.”

Gingras added that the company was “committed to helping the news industry meet that challenge and looks forward to continuing to work with our thousands of partners globally, as well as in Spain, to help them increase their online readership and revenues.”

Google has more than 70 editions worldwide available in 35 different languages.

Gingras noted that the news service is “free to use and includes everything from the world’s biggest newspapers to small, local publications and bloggers.”

Publishers can choose whether or not they want their articles to appear on Google News.

“And the vast majority choose to be included for a very good reason... it creates real value” for these publications by driving people to their websites, which, he believes, in turn helps generate advertising revenues.

The new law, also known as the “Lassalle Law” in reference to the Spanish Secretary of State for Culture Jose Maria Lassalle, goes into effect from Jan. 1.


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