Google’s Gingras: fake news in US election was catalyst for change

A Google executive says the spread of fake news in the US presidential election spurred efforts to save journalism.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has ushered in a new era of collaboration with publishers

One of Google’s top executives has admitted that the spread of fake news in the US presidential election won by Donald Trump prompted fresh efforts to help news organisations generate revenue from journalism.

The search giant has extended an olive branch to publishers by developing new artificial intelligence tools that will make it easier to promote and sell subscriptions across the web by using Google’s user data to recognise potential subscribers and tailor subscription offers.

In an interview with Media, Richard Gingras, head of news products at Google, said misinformation in last year’s election “heightened our sense of urgency to make sure that the Fourth Estate has a great opportunity to make sure their businesses are successful and provide quality journalism”.

Changes also include the end of the “first click free” feature that allows readers to access three articles behind a paywall without having to subscribe.

First click free was positioned as a way to help publishers attract potential subscribers but it has nobbled attempts by news brands to build a direct relationship with readers, and further entrenched Google’s monopoly in search advertising.

The move comes after a sustained campaign to force Google to recognise the value of journalism led by Robert Thomson, News Corp’s chief executive.

It follows a similar move from Facebook to placate an industry that has seen advertising and readers subsumed by the online behemoths.

Following years of frustration with Google’s search practices, Mr Thomson said Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, “deserves a lot of credit for taking a different approach”.

“I’ve probably been more critical in public of Google than any person, and I want to praise Sundar for heading in the right direction,” said Mr Thomson.

Mr Pichai was named CEO in August 2015, and two months ago joined the board of directors of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

“Sundar has a keen interest on the health of the news industry and has been very keen to help drive and prioritise our efforts,” said Mr Gingras, a former Apple executive and CEO of Salon Media Group.

He credits Pichai with ushering in a new era of collaboration between Google and publishers.

“There’s an increased sensitivity in understanding the nature of the news business,’’ he said.

“Not surprisingly there are a lot of folks in the tech industry who don’t fully understand news publishing just as there are as many people in news publishing who don’t understand technology. There has been good growth there on our part.”

Google is expected to make a public announcement about the changes within weeks as Gingras “locks down some of the details” on a worldwide listening tour of major publishers.

“There are things that we can do to help better identify and target opportunities in the market,” said Gingras. “There are also things we can do to eliminate friction in the purchase process. For instance, where Google has credit cards on file for its users perhaps we can simplify the purchase process.

“We also want to as best we can recognise that a Google user has a subscription to The Australian and tune our experiences to make sure that they have every opportunity on a Google surface to get the full value out of their subscription.”

With publishers relying more on getting readers to pay because of the dominance of Google and Facebook’s ad businesses, Mr Gingras said the viability of subscription models was the top issue on his international roadshow.

“From a monetisation point of view there are concerns. There has been an increasing shift in focus on subscription revenue which makes perfect sense.”

Google’s warmer approach to the industry comes amid intense regulatory heat in Europe. In June the company was fined €2.4 billion ($3.6bn) by the European Commission for favouring its own shopping service over rivals.

A degree of self-interest has also motivated Google’s plans to better support publishers. The walled garden strategies of Facebook and Amazon threaten to supplant Google’s role as the entry point to the internet.

Mr Gingras skirts around the growing threat posed by other tech giants in an oblique acknowledgment of concerns about the “health of the web and the news ecosystem”. Facebook is a “controlled environment” whereas “Google is a child of the web”.

“What has changed is the evolution of the market and clearly the increased dependency on subscriptions. Two years ago, there weren’t nearly as many news organisations even considering paywalls much less having them in place. It becomes even more appropriate for us to step up and see what we can do to create new mechanisms to help that growth happen.”

While publishers welcome Google’s push, a senior digital media executive was cautiously optimistic about how meaningful the changes will be.

“Richard’s empathy for the plight of the publisher is a refreshing change from Google. Let’s hope we see real change as a result,” one said.