This could turn out to be really big if it does fructify later this year. Axios.com reports that in a major departure from its long-standing practice of not paying publishers directly to distribute their work, Google said it was creating a licensing program to pay publishers “for high-quality content” as a part of a new news product launching later this year.
Why this is significant is that regulators everywhere have been increasingly the search giant with broad-based policies that would force it to pay publishers on policymakers’ terms. Now it looks like Google is trying to stay ahead of these threats by introducing its own payout terms, says Axios.
