Google Moves to Corral Newspapers into Newspass

Google has received a lot of blame for the decline of newspapers. It looks like Google might now be poised to bail newspapers out and make them reliant on the search giant.

Google is testing a new paywall system. Called Newspass, this new system seems like it can make micropayments a viable revenue model and make Google an ecommerce behemoth.

Bad Blood

Some newspaper owners have accused Google of making a profit from scraping their content. Essentially, many newspapers feel defrauded because while they’ve received no compensation for their content appearing in Google News, Google has made revenue off of the Adwords ads that appears alongside that Google News content.

Blood is so bad between Google and some newspapers that many newspapers have ignored Google’s efforts to help them drive traffic to their restricted content. For instance, rather than using Google’s First-Click-Free service to let Google index content behind a registration wall, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation blocked Google from indexing its newspaper content altogether.

Google’s Paywall Solution

One model tabled to help newspapers generate online subscription income was micropayments. The model was never widely implemented, however, because of widespread doubt that a user would be willing to repeatedly charge minuscule transactions from multiple sites to their credit cards.

But Google is now working on Newspass, a paywall system that would allow users to manage subscriptions and micropayments across multiple sites/networks through one centralized account. And as Matthew Buckland wrote for Silicon Valley Watcher, Google is already piloting Newspass with Italian publishers, and it’s designed to support multiple platforms:

The search giant will apparently launch “an integrated payment system” allowing users to buy news content with just “one click”. Newspass would allow publishers to use a single infrastructure for Web, mobile and tablet computers to monetize their content.

Importantly, [...] consumers will have a single log-in across a multitude of news sites that would be flexible enough to accommodate various kinds of payments, including long-term subscriptions and one-time micropayments. It would be a one-click payment for access, not too dissimilar from Google Checkout.

The one-click access to multiple sites could potentially be a deal closer for micropayments and other paid subscriptions because it would reduce friction. Essentially, users might be more likely to pay for content if all recurring and micropayments are managed under one account that they already have through a brand that they already trust.

Just Another Brick in the Wall?

Of course, this all begs the question: is Google too late? In addition to Google having failed at many things, it might be too late to expect users to start paying for what they’ve been getting for free for so long.

For instance, there’s no guarantee that mainstream publishers will go for Newspass. They might be too uncomfortable with Google having that much access to data about both their traffic and revenue.

That being said, it’s equally likely that this kind of product and level of support could be the tipping point for news publishers to fully embrace Google’s suite of tools (such as First-Click-Free). In the meantime, we’ll just have to sit back and watch how things play out in Italy.

About CT Moore

A former Staff Editor here at Revenews.com, CT Moore is a recovering agency hack with over 7 years experience leveraging search and social media to help brands meet their business goals online. By day, he provides SEO and social content strategy to both SMBs and enterprise level companies in the tech, entertainment and travel industries, including Acquisio, Microsoft Canada, and Luxury Retreats. CT is also an accomplished blogger, podcaster, and conference speaker who educates groups and companies about how they can effectively leverage different online channels.

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