Google is seeking ways to help publishers win paying subscribers for news stories, a person close to the matter said.
To this end, the US Internet giant is collaborating with News Corp, the Financial Times and the New York Times, the source said.
Google is said to be ramping up its support for subscription services in recognition that such revenue is vital for publishers who cannot rely on advertising alone for financial survival.
Google declined to comment on word of this latest effort.
“We work closely with news publishers across the world to build products that help support their business and add value to users,” Google spokesperson Maggie Shiels said in response to a request for comment. “At the moment we don’t have anything to announce.”
Google already uses its technology to let readers of online news subscribe to publishers with a single click, in an Internet-age spin on tossing a free copy of a newspaper on a doorstep in the hope that people sign would up for daily deliveries.
Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai has made a priority of investing in artificial intelligence, which could be combined with troves of data at Google to try to better win over potential news subscribers.
Publishers have complained at times that Google is making money off their work by surfacing stories in search results.
Google has said that it shares revenue with publishers, drives traffic to their Web sites where the stories are hosted and that they can opt not to show up in search results.
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