Google News Showcase launches to more countries worldwide, including the UK and Argentina, on the heels of its Australian launch last week. The digital news coverage includes free articles from more than 120 paid UK and 40 Argentine stores, bringing 450 publications. Google’s UK media partners range from major news threads such as Reuters to business and political stores such as The Financial Times and New statesman, and newspapers The Telegraph, The Independent and Midland News Association.
Participating publishers get dedicated panels that showcase their composite articles that allow users to browse the Google News app, mobile web browsers, and Discover on iOS. By clicking on an article, you are taken to the full story on the publisher’s website. Google will also show panels of news providers that you follow and list recommended panels in the “For You” section and the “Kiosk” section of its News product.
The web giant claims that Showcase can help large publishers get new subscribers by highlighting the content of paywalls, while smaller newspapers provide a larger platform for their production. But in reality, Google’s relationship with the news media was far from friendly, and Showcase suffered.
Google delayed plans to launch the product in Australia last year and recently threatened to pull out its search engine after being told to share royalties with publishers. However, some of these issues seem to have been resolved since the product arrived in the country on February 4th. Meanwhile, French regulators have been pushing to agree to pay local news sales, though they still have to conclude individual agreements with its partners.