How Google supports journalism and the news industry in the UK

Google is committed to supporting open access to information. Our products give people choice and help them find more high-quality journalism — from international stories to community reporting — than ever before.

Over the past 20 years, we’ve collaborated closely with the news industry and provided billions of dollars to support the creation of quality journalism in the digital age. Through both our services and our direct funding of news organisations, Google is one of the world’s biggest financial supporters of journalism.

Our commitment to news

Our products are built to provide relevant and useful information for everyone, ensuring that people around the world are able to find quality news. As part of this, we play a constructive role in enabling a sustainable, independent, and diverse news ecosystem.

We've shown that commitment over decades of financial support by providing billions of dollars of financial support — sharing revenue with news publishers via our ad network, developing tools, training and funding through programmes like the Google News Initiative, and launching Google News Showcase. All of these have led to us transferring significant value to news organisations.

These efforts help people get the quality news and information that matters to them and their community and ensure a sustainable future for quality journalism.

We deliver significant value and funding to news organisations

Every news organisation can choose whether they want to be in Google Search and Google News. Most do because it results in valuable free traffic.

Every month, people in Europe click through from Google Search and Google News results to publishers' websites 8 billion times. The traffic we send to news sites helps publishers increase their readership, build trust with readers and earn money. In fact, the overall value of web traffic is estimated to be worth more than £500 million a year to news publishers in the UK.

Our advertising technology helps news organisations make money by showing ads on their websites, apps and videos. In the UK, between 2018-2020, we paid out more than $328M to the top five news publishers in our ad network. When news publishers use Ad Manager, they keep between 70-95+% of digital advertising revenue.

We also pay to license content through Google News Showcase, an online experience that’s powered by a $1 billion investment in news organisations. More than 2 8 0 UK publications have brought their journalism to Google News Showcase since we launched in 2021, 90%+ of which are local newspapers, from the Daily Mail and Guardian to the Grantham Journal and the North Devon Gazette.

And we’re committed to finding new ways to support the news industry. This includes Reader Revenue Manager, which we built with news publishers to help them make money from new subscribers, as well the Google News Initiative, through which we provide tools, training and grant funding to help news evolve in the digital age. The Google News Initiative (GNI) includes a $300 million funding commitment to the future of the news industry. In the UK, from 2018-2020, we’ve provided $18M to support UK news organisations.

News, the internet and regulation

Newspaper circulation has been falling for decades. And the internet, while providing cheaper distribution and more potential readers, completely changed the business models of news organisations, with classifieds revenue moving to specialised online classified services and increased competition from a wider range of publications. Technology companies, news organisations and governments need to collaborate to enable a strong future for journalism and quality content that doesn’t disrupt access to the open web.

The internet was built on the ability to link freely between websites, which allows people to easily browse the internet. Changing this would fundamentally break the way the open web works, and how people use Google Search. This is why we and many others are concerned by some proposals that would require news publishers to be paid just for showing links to their sites from a Google search results page.

Facts about Google & news

News websites are in control

An illustration of a Google search bar featuring election ballots and a calendar

Google Search and Google News provide links to useful and relevant news stories to help you find the information you’re looking for about current events.

Every news organisation has control over whether and how their headlines and links appear in Google Search and News. Most welcome the fact that people can find them in Google search results — but if a news site (or any other site for that matter) doesn’t want to show up or wants to control what is shown on Google, they can choose to do so. They can do that whether their site is paywalled or free to view.

Google does not “steal” or “use” news publisher content. We link to it. Publishers decide to be included in Google Search because they want to be found by a broader audience.

We don't make money from Google News

An illustration showing different articles

There have been wildly inaccurate assertions about the value of news to Google. News websites are a small slice of the information on the internet. In the past year, news-related queries on Search accounted for under 2% of total queries on Google Search globally.

We don’t show ads — or make money — on the vast majority of searches. And we don’t run ads on Google News or the news results tab on Google Search.

Nearly all the ads people see on Google are on searches with commercial intent like “trainers,” “t-shirts,” or “plumber,” and generally not from news-seeking queries. And we only make money if ads are useful and relevant, as indicated by your click on the ad.

Although we don’t run ads on Google News or the news results tab, we do help news organisations show ads on their websites, apps and videos. Many news publishers use our advertising tools and platforms. Every year, we pay out billions of dollars directly to the publishing partners in our ad network.

We pay for content

An abstract illustration featuring a $1 billion sign

With Google News Showcase, we have committed $1 billion over the next three years to pay publishers to produce editorially curated content experiences and for limited free user access to paywalled content.

News Showcase is made up of panels that give news organisations the ability to package the most important stories of the day for readers, providing deeper storytelling and more context through features like timelines, bullets, related stories and a list of important articles. This content currently appears in Google News and Discover, bringing trusted news to readers all over the world.

In the UK, more than 240 publications have brought their journalism to Google News Showcase since we launched in 2021. These range from the largest nationals, like the Daily Mail, The Times and The Guardian to regional publishers like Newsquest and JPI Media, and independent publishers through the ICNN. Over 90% are regional, local or independent publishers. We look forward to partnering with even more publications for News Showcase.

Google generates traffic and revenue for news publishers

An illustration showing mouse cursors in different colours

Each month, people click through from Google Search and Google News results to publishers' websites more than 24 billion times — that’s over 9,000 clicks per second.

By sending free traffic to news sites, we generate significant monetary value for publishers. For example, Deloitte estimated the value of each click or visit we send to large EU publishers to between 4-6 Euro cents (3-5 UK pence) as publishers monetise this traffic by showing people ads or offers to subscribe or donate to the publication.

Publishers use Google’s advertising tools to make money

For many years we’ve helped publishers make money by providing tools and technology that help them run digital advertising on their websites and apps.

Our ad technologies enable news organisations to sell their ad space to millions of advertisers around the world — including advertisers they wouldn’t have access to without these services.

When publishers choose to use our advertising services, on average, news publishers keep between 70- 95 percent of the digital advertising revenue they generate. Every year, we pay out billions of dollars directly to the publishing partners in our ad network.

Supporting the future of news

An illustration with different building block images alongside a digital screen

Through the Google News Initiative (GNI), we collaborate with the news industry in creating, testing and implementing new ways to reach readers in the digital age.

Thirty years ago newspapers were one of the only sources of information in their communities. But now they must compete with thousands of new sources of information, while classified revenue and circulation have plunged. This has necessitated the development of new business and distribution models and new techniques to produce news.

The GNI works directly with news organisations of all sizes on developing new products, programs and partnerships to help news publishers grow their business. It includes a $300 million funding commitment to news organisations, including $18m in training, partnerships and programming with news organisations in the UK.

Since 2018, the GNI has supported more than 6,250 news partners in 118 countries around the world.We’ve trained more than 18,000 journalists and journalism students on a range of skills including digital verification, data visualisation and machine learning through in-person training. We also provide free online lessons via our training website, which has been accessed more than 1.7m times.

We’ve supported the National Council for the Training of Journalists to digitise their curriculum and launch the Journalism Skills Academy, a new e-learning platform for people at different stages of their career. Our partnership with the University of Central Lancashire has seen mid-career journalists participate in a Journalism Innovation and Leadership programme and our contributions to the Journalism Diversity Fund have helped extend opportunities for new talent across the country.

Many news publishers have successfully used technology and tools to diversify business models, and find growth and new revenue. The GNI is intended to support these efforts.

By the numbers

Google News Showcase

$1 billion committed to support the news industry and Google News Showcase partnerships
285 UK news outlets signed onto News Showcase as of February 2021, 90%+ of which are local newspapers

Google News Initiative

Since the GNI launched in the UK, we have committed $18M to support news organisations
We provide publishers a variety of business programmes and resources, with more than 380 publishers attending one of our recent training sessions.

Revenue and traffic for publishers

Globally, every year, we pay out billions of dollars directly to the publishing partners in our ad network
In the UK, between 2018-2020, we paid out more than $328M to the top five news publishers in the ad network. When news publishers use Ad Manager, they keep between 70-95+% of digital advertising revenue.
Google sends 8 billion clicks per month from Google Search and Google News results to European publishers’ websites — estimated by Deloitte to have a value of between 4-6 Euro cents (3-5 pence) per click. This represents the total value of web traffic to be more than £500M to UK publishers.

What others are saying

… Publishers make more money from the traffic and subscriptions they gain through platforms than platforms do from monetizing the material publishers put there.

Washington Post editorial board
If a publisher doesn’t like how Google displays snippets of its content, for instance, it’s free to adjust those settings or to opt out entirely. Neither aggregator impedes consumers from visiting news sites directly if they so choose. And … [Google has] voluntarily committed hundreds of millions of dollars to newsrooms around the world in recent years.

Bloomberg Editorial Board
The truth is many publishers have failed to find a workable digital business model.

FT Editorial Board

Latest news & helpful links

The U.K.’s biggest and most local publishers join Showcase

Here’s how local news in the UK is using News Showcase

Helping local journalism in the UK thrive online

Google and news in the UK: The facts

Google News Showcase is launching in the U.K.

Our latest investments in information quality in Search and News

The Google News Initiative Impact Report

Our new training gives small newsrooms a digital boost

Supporting quality journalism in Europe

Helping global publishers accelerate business growth

How we're supporting the news with our marketing

Setting the record straight on news

Supporting local news

About the Google News Initiative

How News Works

Google’s approach to Europe’s Copyright Law