Can Government really make life better for newsrooms battling Google's AI push?
Plus: New website launched in London, Liverpool Echo stops deportation, SOE conference agenda announced.
Hello,
Welcome to this week’s round up of local news about local news.
Our main article is all about potential regulations aimed at creating a level playing field for publishers when dealing with Google. The question is: will it work?
(Spoiler: We asked Google search if its AI overviews are harming news publisher. The AI overview said yes.)
But first, some snippets from the world of local news.
Thanks for reading,
Behind Local News
This week in local news:
🆕 A new website has launched in a London borough to ensure Local Democracy Reporter stories make it to local people.
Social Spider, which holds a number of LDR contracts already, has launched the Barking and Dagenham Star website, after securing the contract for the area last year.
David Floyd, director of Social Spider CIC, adds: “It’s really exciting to be at the first stage of bringing high quality independent journalism to another London borough.
“Although we’re starting small, we’re looking forward to building the Star to be an important source of local news in Barking and Dagenham.”
📝 26 care workers facing deportation after their employer was found in breach of worker visa scheme rules have been told they can stay in the UK - thanks to the Liverpool Echo.
Reporter Ben Haslam investigated after being told the workers had been told to leave after a breach in the rules by their employer which had resulted in several of them being underpaid.
📆 A number of regional and local journalists have been lined up to speak at the Society of Editors conference, due to take place in London on March 17.
Ben Fishwick, editor of the Southern Daily Mail, Natalie Fahy, editor of NottinghamshireLive and Liam Thorp, political editor of the Liverpool Echo are among speakers announced so far.
Dawn Alford, Chief Executive of the Society of Editors, said: “The conference will not only provide a forum for lively debate and fresh perspective but it also offers unparalleled networking opportunities alongside some of the UK’s most experienced news leaders as well as political and foreign correspondents. We look forward to welcoming the industry on 17 March.”
Can the Government really make Google play fair with local news?
Google is facing a slew of new regulations in the UK as the Government attempts to make life a little bit fairer for publishers heavily reliant on the search giant for revenue and readers.
Publishers, including local news publishers in the UK, have seen audiences from Google search squeezed over the last 18 months after Google began rolling out AI Overviews, which answer users’ questions without the need to click through to the source.
While many in the news industry argue this is an abuse of the relationship between publishers and Google - not to mention a prime example of why the Government needs to legislate quickly to protect copyright laws - Google takes a different view.
Its senior manager for government affairs left MPs and the industry baffled when she told MPs that Google didn’t think it should pay to use material created by someone else.
Roxanne Carter said: “When it comes to training AI models on freely available content that is available on the open web, we do not believe that we should license.
“What the AI model is trying to do is analyse huge amounts of data to identify patterns and statistical relationships between words, language concepts. It is not an information retrieval system. It is not a database. It is not looking to make copies. What it’s trying to do is develop new tools to then produce wholly new content.”
Days later, the Competition and Markets Authority announced it was intending to force Google to do more to help publishers.
So what could Google be forced to do?
Under the plans, announced by the Competition and Markets Authority next week and open to consultation until the end of February, Google would be compelled to:
Allow publishers to withhold content from appearing in Google’s AI services. At the moment, the only way to stop work appearing in Google’s AI services is to block Google from indexing sites at all - meaning publishers have to choose between no presence on Google, or total access for Google to use content in AI services
Publish clear information on how Google uses content to training AI models, and must also publish detailed metrics for publishers on user engagement with AI services based on publisher content
Take steps to ensure search results, including in AI, ‘sufficiently attribute’ sources of information. At the moment, links are rare, and sourcing even rarer.
Will Hayter, from the CMA, said: “These measures will give publishers – including news and other content producers – stronger bargaining power and support the long-term sustainability of trusted information online. They will also help people verify sources in AI-generated results and build trust in what they see.”
This is good news, right?
The move has certainly been welcomed within the industry - but there are concerns that what is being proposed doesn’t go far enough.
Owen Meredith, chief executive of the News Media Association, said: “We strongly welcome the CMA’s proposals to allow news publishers to control whether their content is used in AI Overviews while remaining visible in Google Search results and to ensure fair ranking of publisher content.
“The CMA rightly recognises that Google is able to extract valuable data without reward, harming publishers and giving the company an unfair advantage over competitors in the AI model market, including British startups.
“Given the seriousness of Google’s anti-competitive impact on news media and the AI market, we are sceptical that weaker behavioural remedies will be sufficient, and we urge the CMA to consider full physical separation of crawlers for Search and individual AI products.
“Without a clear duty on Google to negotiate, publishers will continue to face significant barriers to securing a fair price for their valuable content. It is critical that Ministers support the CMA to move at pace.”
What is Google saying?
Ron Eden, principal for project management, said: “We're now exploring updates to our controls to let sites specifically opt out of Search generative AI features.
“Our goal is to protect the helpfulness of Search for people who want information quickly, while also giving websites the right tools to manage their content. We look forward to engaging in the CMA’s process and will continue discussions with website owners and other stakeholders on this topic.
“We're optimistic we can find a path forward that provides even more choice to website owners and publishers, while ensuring people continue to get the most helpful and innovative Search experience possible.”
So what should newsrooms do now?
Volatility from Google has become a factor of everyday life for newsrooms around the world. The consensus appears to be: Don’t expect that to change.
Writing on LinkedIn, Lawrence Timmins, head of SEO at Midland News Association Digital, part of Iconic Media, said: “Publishers have spent years blaming Google and demanding more control over how their content appears. The reality is they already have that control, they can block Google from crawling their site entirely. But doing so would be obvious commercial suicide.
“They are not being forced to participate, they are economically dependent on participation.
“The real adaptation is not waiting for Google or regulators to fix it, it is using organic visibility to drive genuinely original content that turns readers into brand loyalists who come back directly, not through chance encounters in Search or Discover, but because they actively choose to engage with the content and that particular publisher.”
Vic Daniels, co-founder of sports website publisher GRV Media, said: “Regulation is a safety net, not a strategy for publishers.
“With AI Overviews increasingly designed to keep users on-page, the traditional "click-through" model is dying. Publishers will need to continue to work hard to prepare for Google Zero, by owning the audience, direct engagement and enhancing brand.
“The CMA consultation ends on February 25. Publishers should clearly support the initiative, but continue to build their own futures.”
What next?
The CMA will announce what happens next shortly after February 25. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will also be publishing its local media strategy in the spring, which is likely to include proposals for how Google can better support local news.