European publishers could be paid by Google for content

Under new copyright reforms proposed by the European Commission, European news publishers could be allowed to demand payment from the likes of Facebook and Google for using their content.

According to internal documents seen by the Financial Times, the proposals, which are set to be published next month, will give publishers “exclusive rights” to their online content – forcing services such as Google News to agree new terms.

The European Commission cited dwindling revenues at news organisations as the main reason behind the reform, and warned that failure to implement such a policy would be “prejudicial for…media pluralism.”

Christian Wigand, a spokesperson for the European Commission, said: “Let’s be clear: granting such rights to news publishers would not affect the way users share hyperlinks on the internet. It would recognise their role as investors in content.”

Imposing a levy for content use would be voluntary, however – and publishers might remain cautious as a previous move to limit Google News’ impact on Spanish publishers only resulted in dramatic declines in traffic.

The news comes in the same week a new report from OC&C forecast that Facebook and other platforms will rob the UK news industry of up to £450 million over the next 10 years.

The report estimates that around 30% of annual digital revenue could go to the digital giants – meaning they could take as much as £250 million a year this year, rising to £450 million from 2026.