Google has reportedly signed a content agreement with The New York Times worth about $100 million. The NYT’s content will be made available on the internet giant’s various platforms, including Google News, which will soon be launched in the US.
The agreement between the two companies was reported last week by the Wall Street Journal, but both Alphabet – Google’s parent company – and the New York Times have so far refused to comment on the matter. An agreement that according to unconfirmed information is in the order of 100 million dollars.
According to the report, earlier this year the New York Times announced an expansion of its agreement with Google. An agreement that includes content distribution and subscriptions, as well as the use of Google’s marketing tools and experimentation with ads.
As a key part of the agreement, Google will deliver the NYT’s content on a number of its own platforms. One of these platforms is Google News Showcase, which pays publishers to publish their content on Google News.
A Google spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that “we don’t share the details of commercial agreements with partners”.
Assuming that the Wall Street Journal’s report is true, the agreement could be seen as another step in Google’s and other media giants’ efforts to create a cartel-like oligopoly in both advertising and search suggestions on the internet.
