Indian Newspaper Society urges Google to pay for news and raise ad revenue share to 85 percent

The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) on Thursday asked Google to pay Indian newspapers for using news (information) in search engines. Appealed to increase the publisher's share of advertising revenue to 85 percent. The INS President L. Adimoolam wrote a letter to Google to this extent. He said a transparent advertising system was not available to publishers because Google could not get comprehensive details about the value of advertising. "On behalf of the community, we urge Google to increase the share of publishers in advertising revenue to 85%. We also want more transparency in the way revenue reports are presented to publishers, "said INS.

In a letter to Sanjay Gupta, Google's India manager, Adimoolam demanded that thousands of journalists be hired at the field level to verify the authenticity of news gathering and information that newspapers are spending significantly and that Google should pay for using that information. He said advertising is like the financial backbone to the media industry. Awareness that publishers' share of advertising revenue in digital media is declining, and that Google is also taking the bulk of advertising and giving a small amount to publishers.

Meanwhile, Facebook has announced that it is ready to invest in the news industry. It said it would invest over $ 1 billion (approximately Rs 7,500 crore) in the sector over the next three years. Facebook said it has paid $ 600 million to news organisations since 2018.