The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has written to Google, asking the tech giant to compensate Indian newspapers comprehensively for the use of content published by them and share its advertising revenues.
In a letter addressed to Google India Country Manager Sanjay Gupta, INS President L Adimoolam demanded that Google should pay for news generated by the newspapers, which employ thousands of journalists on the ground and at considerable expense for gathering and verifying information. Since the content generated and published by newspapers is proprietary, the industry group pointed out that it is this credible content that has given Google the authenticity in India ever since its inception.
Pointing out that publishers have been providing complete access to “quality journalism with credible news, current affairs, analysis, information and entertainment”, INS said there is a huge distinction between the editorial content from quality publications and fake news that is spreading on other information platforms.
INS noted that over the past year, publishers across the world have taken up the issue of fair payment for content and of proper sharing of advertising revenue with the American company. The letter also notes that Google has recently agreed to better compensate and pay publishers in France, the European Union, and most notably in Australia.