Alphabet Inc’s Google is developing new tools designed to boost subscriptions for news publishers. It follows a similar olive branch from Facebook Inc to an industry that has seen the digital behemoths take over the online advertising market.
Google’s latest foray arrives on three fronts. The first is a revamp of its feature called “first click free,” that allows readers to access articles from subscription publications through search.
Google is also exploring publishers’ tools around online payments and targeting potential subscribers. It is all part of Google’s broader effort to keep consumers and content-makers returning to the Web, the lifeblood of its ads business.
Initially, Google is testing the tools with New York Times Co and the Financial Times.
However, Google vice president for news Richard Gingras said the search giant is talking to dozens of other outlets as media companies move toward online subscription models.
“It’s clear from news publishers that they can’t live on advertising alone,” he said. “But it’s also clear that we’re seeing a shift in a market.”
Facebook said last month it was working to add subscription tools inside its Instant Articles program, which hosts news articles in its mobile app.
Google’s version, called Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP, enables news Web sites to load more quickly inside of search. With the new tools, Google is looking at ways to let publishers identify who might subscribe, determine how much readers would pay and speed up the process.
Gingras said the new effort would involve Google’s mobile payment services and its gargantuan ad targeting apparatus, although he did not offer specifics.
“This is an area, clearly, where our knowledge about our users can be brought to bear,” he said. “There is no singular subscription strategy that will work for each publisher.”
Gingras declined to say if or how the company would be sharing revenue with publishers.
Kinsey Wilson, an adviser to New York Times president and chief executive Mark Thompson, said the media company has not discussed revenue terms with Google yet.
To date, publishers have favored Google’s mobile publishing tools, which run on the Web using open-source software.
“Facebook’s environment is a Facebook-hosted walled garden,” Wilson said.
The social network, however, tends to be a far bigger driver of web traffic and, thus, an irresistible partner for the media companies.
Some publishers with subscription paywalls are concerned about Google’s search policy. If publishers sign up, they can bump up their articles high in search results, which otherwise bury pages that cannot be accessed for free. In return, they must give non-subscribers access to at least three articles a day for free.
Right now, Google and the New York Times have been testing ways to drop that number down, Wilson said, adding that the product changes are expected to come next month.
“Early results are that there is some flexibility here,” Wilson said.
Sales from subscriptions gained 13.9 percent for his company during the second quarter while ad revenue rose 0.8 percent, he said.
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