Google News: Updates on the Official News Aggregation Service & App

Local Journalism companies say that Google News is killing their business.

When in reality, Google's just loosening the vice grip media has had on public perception. Far from perfected as it's fairly new in comparison to news companies that once operated off newspapers and tv shows, BUT it's clear it's about an old business model vs new.

Cantwell report warns that Google and Facebook are killing local journalism as CEOs testify at Senate​

The technology industry is pushing local journalism over the edge, according to a new report from the office of Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state.

The report released Tuesday predicts that by the end of 2020, newspaper revenue will be down 70% compared to 20 years ago and broadcast revenues will dip more than 40%. The losses have created “news deserts” in 200 counties across the U.S. where there are no local newspapers covering their communities. More than 40,000 newsroom employees have been laid off, 60% of the nation’s local journalism jobs, according to the report.
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link - https://www.geekwire.com/2020/cantw...killing-local-journalism-ceos-testify-senate/
 
As Google News is continually built upon and refined; there's been new jobs that have arisen from the newly dominant search factor. A recent report shared some of the jobs created at one office:

The four apprentices will divide their time between working on the brand content curation team, working as a trainee reporter in one of its regional newsrooms and studying on a two-year, NCTJ-accredited apprenticeship programme.

Two content editors are also being hired to run the team, with all roles being able to be based anywhere in the UK.

The drive is part of the company’s Reach Boost scheme, which is aimed at improving minority ethnic and social class representation in its newsrooms and has already led to the creation of three new regional journalism when it was launched in September.
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The biggest factor I've seen in Google News is appropriate headlines. There's never been a time I've seen on-line where a Attention-Winning Headline Creator has been more valuable.

Beyond that, on the marketing end , if you understand Google News from it's inception and have experience manipulating/swaying news flow...... You've got a LOT of power today. Brand launching capability is through the roof.

link -
https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/...in-publishers-bid-to-boost-stories-on-google/
 
Well this is quite interesting.

I wonder if us plebs will get access to this new premium content carousal upsell super funnel thingy mabobber.
 
New angle going on for Google News now.

In Canada, news & media companies are petitioning the government to allow them to form their own 'government' over how their content can be used with sites like Facebook and Google.

news - https://globalnews.ca/news/7415281/canadian-publishers-collective-bargaining-google-facebook/

News Media Canada — which represents newspaper publishers including the Globe and Mail, National Post publisher Postmedia, Toronto Star publisher Torstar, La Presse and Quebecor — says the two web giants have established an effective duopoly in the digital ads market that’s starving Canada’s media industry of revenue.
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They say Google & facebook controls 60 to 90% of the industry of media ads and unfairly dictate how things go.

The problem in this to me is, when these companies were doing the exact same thing and pushing out smaller companies, nobody complained. Getting outplayed at your own game, now you want the 'new player' out of the game.

Instead of trying to re-invent the wheel and create a healthy alternative people use, they feel google & facebook can't be competed with. a true show of incompetence and lack of idealogy these days .
 
EyesExist said:
The problem in this to me is, when these companies were doing the exact same thing and pushing out smaller companies, nobody complained. Getting outplayed at your own game, now you want the 'new player' out of the game.

Instead of trying to re-invent the wheel and create a healthy alternative people use, they feel google & facebook can't be competed with. a true show of incompetence and lack of idealogy these days .
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Insane how, instead of adapting, the "old guard" resorts to calling on Daddy Government for assistance. I'm seeing it in the niche I'm in too. The 50+-year-old agencies sending cease & desist letters to vaguely related businesses because they use the same initialism in PR pieces.

They know their time is up and they have to hang on to whatever they can grasp.
 
Google News has signed publishing deals with 6 French news/media companies.

The six companies are: Le Monde, Le Figaro, Liberation, L'Express, L'Obs and Courrier International

There may be more as well. Full story:
https://www.deccanherald.com/busine...ent-deal-with-french-media-groups-917641.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-pay-french-publishers-content-163418242.html

Specifically, these agreements will have Google paying publications for “neighboring rights,” also known as “related rights,” under European copyright laws. Such laws were updated last year by the European Union Parliament in order to give publishers and creators more leverage to negotiate payment from the likes of Google and Facebook. The amount the French publishers will be paid from Google is based on “objective, transparent and non-discriminatory criteria, such as the publisher’s contribution to political and general information, the daily volume of publications, its monthly Internet traffic, and the use of their content on our platforms,” Missoffe wrote.
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This is a big deal b/c it could dictate who has a huge influence over search in coming years. Also,it could influence the value of backlinks tremendously if suddendly such powerful sources were overtaken. Who knows however, as Algorithm has been great at giving newcomers their fair shot at google search traffic.

I'm not sure why this is happening in only France so far. It's sure got something to do with laws/loopholes/and actual cost to pay these companies vs investing in new media offices.


There's another report as well about other pub deals happening. This says Google & FB will begin paying ABC & SBS in Australia.

Australia’s mandatory news code no longer excludes the ABC and SBS from receiving payments from Google and Facebook for using their content.

The addition of the public broadcasters is one of the significant changes treasurer Josh Frydenberg has made to the draft mandatory news code before it is tabled in parliament by 10 December.
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https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...nclude-abc-and-sbs-after-change-to-draft-code


My guess is there's a lot of behind the scenes lobbying going on to get these laws bent. The dumb part, these people thinking Google's not already foresighting all this are LUDICROUS. Google's always played chess with these media companies. Record labels tried to sue Google/YouTube before..... the showdown ended with them having to just deal with it and accept what Google was willing to give; because the record companies got caught in a major scandal trying to falsify views to bolster the credibility of their artists b/c YouTube indepedent artists were becoming a super force.
 
Is anyone willing to make a guide to share some tips and advice for getting a website approved in Google news and how we can benefit the most from that? Or is it pretty straightforward and self-explanatory? I think this would be really useful content. I've seen some surface-level posts about it around the web but covering some of the nuances and things from an expert perspective would be nice.

@EyesExist you seem to be our resident Google News guy - what do you say, are you up for it?
 
Supposedly the "apply for google news" age is over

@TheCurator

Before ti was this:
1) Domain needs over 1 year I believe now
2) Domain needs to have like 20-quality current news articles posted aily
3) Need to have 5 authors listed on thes ite as contrbutors
4) Need to have contacts listed
5) Need to have your basic policy/toa pages

Now you have to indivdually submit articles, if i'm reading correctly, for inclusion here:
https://publishercenter.google.com/publications#p:id=pfehome
 
2021 will be a major year for Google News in search and publishing content.

It's official that the big G wants to dominate global media and they are even experimenting with removing former major media publications, who once owned the printed world. Some may cry but in reality, media has always been controlled.

In a disturbing move, Google is apparently experimenting with hiding links to some news sites from search results in Australia.

The change was initially reported by the Australian Financial Review, and was confirmed by Google to AFR as well as The Guardian. Some of the affected outlets include the Guardian Australia, the Australian, and the Sydney Morning Herald. While Google says these experiments are impacting “about 1% of Google Search users in Australia,” some users have anecdotally claimed that searching for these publications either leads to older stories, the sites not appearing at all, or the publications’ social media pages.
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quote from - https://gizmodo.com/google-is-experimenting-with-removing-some-news-sites-f-1846049625

I can imagine this will continue. Of course these media outlets are screaming "oh the horror" but in reality, Google's taken the business model they used to dominate their own media for a long time.

The upside: Now Google' paying a lot of independent news teams who provide REAL NEWS without any sort of swaying commercial factor or political invest in the content. The news is going to get/getting more accurate I believe , though a lot of garbage will still be in there until it's all mastered with moderation.

ALSO! For google news publishers, there's now a dashboard to get stats.

full story - https://wptavern.com/google-introduces-performance-report-for-google-news-publishers

Google has launched a new Search Console performance report for sites that appear in Google News. Publishers can now track clicks, impressions, and CTR for traffic coming from news.google.com and the Google News apps for Android and iOS.
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google-news-report-search-console.png




And last. These news stories are now getting tagged /meta tagged with 'intent' labels to categorize content.

story - https://www.seroundtable.com/google-news-articles-intent-30733.html

Google seems to be categorizing and labeling news articles in mobile search by intent, such as interviews or other intents.
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Search Engine Journal shared on a write up on how to get your site listed in Google News:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-to-get-listed-in-google-news/379701/


Google’s John Mueller answers questions about SEO best practices for news websites, particularly as it relates to publishing shorter articles.
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taken from - https://www.searchenginejournal.com...s-for-news-sites-short-articles/396645/#close

Big pointers:
- Short content may not get indexed
- scraped/copied/duplicated content = bad
- Articles that answer questions that are queried are valued higher
^ this i how I'm designing all my new content for client's projects I work on. There's great way to formulate 'responsive sentences / content'

Google's is now paying about 500 sites for their news content:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/10/...e-uk-argentina-launch-license-paywall-content

Google’s News Showcase, a program wherein the search giant pays to curate news content from publishers, has launched in the UK and Argentina. In the UK, the service covers over 120 publications, while 40 Argentinian publications have signed up. For readers, the service includes the ability to access select paywalled content for free. News Showcase launched in Germany and Brazil last year, and Australia last week, and now includes content from over 450 publications worldwide.
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If you've got a Google News site, you might be on to a new pay bump in 2021!
 
Google News is now about to become MORE VISIBLE in google search:
https://www.androidcentral.com/google-search-getting-powerful-google-news-feature-month said:
Google is making the Search app more comprehensive with support from the Google News team. The company is including "Full Coverage" into its main Search app.

It's not a new feature per se, it's just one that allowed you to tap on a news topic and get a lot more contextual information around that topic either on the Google News site or app, and now it's coming to Search directly.
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The Layman's summary is simply Google is now giving 'up to date coverage' on the news carousel with one click. Pretty much pushing down search results further out of view, to keep up with who's current and relevant in the news of NOW/TODAY.

As I've said all alone. It's important to stay in the news. Why? Google search is using news to rank who's relevant in conversation of today.

There's more to it than this but..................... it's part of my secret sauce, so that is the tip of the day .
 
Grandfathered Google News Sites that were consistent with good content and Major News Publishers seem to be getting the higher ranking in Google News now.

Been researching this a bit.

The Complexity of how Google News work in relation to search is much more complicated now. It's becoming a 'degree' of it's own.

I've been following some of my past works for clients here recently and though they have shifted with Google's recent changes, it's helped me identify a difference in how Google value's the diff Google News sites and content.

What you should not do: Post content on every google news site you can find b/c there's some sites, even grandfathered ones, that are 'red-listed' and will damage your blog like a poisoned dart. I've seen some sites on Fiverr that have High DA/PA and all, tons of people buying it, but those sites are like a 'shit-stained dart'
 
Just got inside information that Google news is really going hard on blog networks and removing people from the GN network for some pretty small 'bending of rules.' They are really policing the market to make sure sites are practicing good media skills.

Be careful who you buy from!
 
There's no official news article I've seen on this but there's a related matter:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-partial-total-deindexing/406167/#close

Google News has been de-indexing low-effort sites. I

I've not really seen current inventory effected.

However, I've seen one past Google News site owner I associated with completely de-indexed from Google News. Both Past and present content pulled off the search.. However, it's still in Google search.

Be careful what you're buying now too b/c I've seen sellers still pushing sites that are de-indexed at outrageous prices. Pretty crazy.
 
US Now following suit . Media companies asking Congress to push law to make Google pay:
https://www.dispatch.com/story/opin...news-publishers-now-they-must-pay/5040984001/

The new regulations would be designed under the 'Journalism Competition and Preservation Act.'

Stay tuned. Big news. This will continue to make Google want to work with smaller publishers, to help eradicate the grip major companies have. The 'little guys' are going to get a shot, but of course under Google's hand.

It will help level the playing field by allowing news publishers to collectively negotiate with digital platforms.

Google and Facebook pay to license music and many other types of content, yet they refuse to fairly compensate the creators of real local journalism.
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Over 50,000 people in India are being trained now to work for Google News:
https://www.livemint.com/industry/m...ws-publishers-for-content-11621343270983.html

Overall, Google's committed over $1-billion dollars to 'helping' journalism aka compete with the media giants of yester-years.
 
The fight is not over. Google dedicated $600-million over for 3 years to the development of news publishing companies &entrepreneurs. However, it appears those companies are protesting the amount saying Google took tens of Billions from their 'table' over the last year alone

full story - https://www.reuters.com/business/me...millions-local-news-was-it-enough-2021-06-10/

"[a] Drop in the Bucket," Maribel Perez Wadsworth, publisher of Gannett’s USA Today
 
Someone brought something to my attention.

Google News sites have really taken over SERPS.

I've been telling people GNAS are being invested in heavily by Google and i think it's obvious now.

I have a challenge for everyone here. It won't be a 100% case and if you are 'Trying' to find a flaw in this statement, i'm sure you can but.

1) search 5 keyword terms you're aiming to improve /dominate in
2) Post the 5 domains you find here for that term
3) How many are on Google News network?

This will be interesting.
 
Isn't any site eligible now to appear in Google News? Before only AMP
 
Darth said:
Isn't any site eligible now to appear in Google News? Before only AMP
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Every site has always been eligible to apply. They just made it easier.
Every site wont be approved, last i knew.
 
Darth said:
I mean there is no "inclusion" - any site can show up - https://support.google.com/news/publisher-center/answer/9607025?hl=en
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No, that's not 100% accurate yet.
They say this, but it's not true.
Still heavily based on G-stats, that we dont even have access to.

A friend actually has somebody in Google Ads on payroll.................. ~$15MM last year got him a lot of doors opened. There's a lot of analytics the average (not spending 7-figs with Google) wont see nor know about, which determine even Google News placements
 
Media companies in France have a smirk on their face this week. They've won a small battle with Google News for using their headlines and news content. The EU government's competition regulators decided to award French News giants nearly $700-million dollars, back-paying for journalist's work search users enjoyed free via Google search.

France's news companies, and others across the European Union and world, argue that Google reaps all the reward of ads on their search engine that showcase other people's work. One of the main arguments being people can read summaries and snippets on Google to get their news without visiting an actual website.

Google had 3 months to negotiate with French News companies, but did not come up with a satisfactory resolution. The search giant's reply to demands for payment, simply a question of how Media sites could ask for money when they receive millions of visitors from the search engine, free.

“Google’s negotiations with publishers and press agencies cannot be regarded as having been conducted in good faith," decided competition regulators.

The result in the decision, $592-million Euros will be paid by Google News to France's various news publications that have been featured in the search engine the last half-decade.

According to ABCNews, this is not the end of the battle either. The French business competition regulation agency is requiring Google to come up with a solution within 2 months from this first settlement. If no agreement is made by then, $900,000 euros more will be awarded to France's publishers. And it can continue going even further from there

As expected, Google France has said they are disappointed by the settlement. Also that the $600-million-dollar fine "doesn't reflect the efforts put in place or the reality of the use of news content on our platform.”
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written by me.
In short, big companies are chipping a way into Google's profits since their profits are sliding.

But this is why Google News is putting such importance and value on Google News publishers that are independent now. You'll notice, a lot of sites showing up at the top of Search now , are Google News sites. There's a war going on beneath our nose.

Wouldn't be surprised if claims of major sites disappearing from search started happening within the next year.
 
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