News Corp’s Robert Thomson welcomes Google’s decision to end ‘First Click Free’

Google’s decision to end its controversial First Click Free program is an “important first step” for publishers, according to Robert Thomson.

Google’s decision to end its controversial First Click Free program is an “important first step” for publishers striving to implement a sustainable business model in a digital world, according to News Corp’s Robert Thomson.

The chief executive, who has been the most vocal critic of the search giant’s search practices, said the development is a welcome move away from a model that allowed users to read news articles without paying.

“The felicitous demise of First Click Free (Second Click Fatal) is an important first step in recognising the value of legitimate journalism and provenance on the internet,” said Mr Thomson.

“We will monitor this change closely to ensure that consumers can indeed find the work of our journalists online, and will report what we learn, for better or for worse.

“If the change is properly introduced, the impact will be profoundly positive for journalists everywhere and for the cause of informed societies.
“Fake news has prospered on digital platforms which have commodified content and thus enabled bad actors to game the system for commercial or political gain.”

Publishers are relying more on getting readers to pay because of the astonishing growth of Google and Facebook’s advertising businesses, which are driven by free content aggregated from publishers.

In a blog post, Richard Gingras, head of news products at Google, said flexible sampling will replace First Click Free.

“Publishers are in the best position to determine what level of free sampling works best for them.

“So as of this week, we are ending the First Click Free policy, which required publishers to provide a minimum of three free articles per day via Google Search and Google News before people were shown a paywall.”

Longer term, Google is building a suite of products and services to help news publishers reach new audiences, drive subscriptions and grow revenue, wrote Mr Gingras.

“We are also looking at how we can simplify the purchase process and make it easy for Google users to get the full value of their subscriptions across Google’s platforms.”

Mr Thomson first revealed on September 12 that Google would end First Click Free at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference.

At the time, he said: “Google has been involved in serious negotiations with us about the future of content, about our relationship with them directly, but more importantly, I think Sundar Pichai (Google CEO) deserves a lot of credit for taking a different approach.

“Because it’s not just us ... when you look at fake news, when you look at false metrics, when you look at faux advertising, something has to change, both from a commercial perspective, content perspective but also from a social perspective ... There’s a lot more to negotiate, there’s a long way to go, but their willingness to end ‘First Click Free’ should be celebrated by all publishers.”

In a recent interview with The Australian, Mr Gingras said the tech firm was developing new artificial intelligence tools that will make it easier to promote and sell subscriptions across the web.

Google’s top local executive last week issued a rare public mea culpa to advertisers over ads appearing alongside extremist content with a little help from Elton John.

A global advertising boycott by more than 250 companies including Coca-Cola and Toyota was prompted by ads appeared alongside racist, antisemitic or jihadist content.