CORRECTED-Alphabet in talks with Spanish publishers to bring Google News back, sources say
(Corrects FEB 22 story to clarify Google's position, paragraph5)
By Emma Pinedo
MADRID, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google isnegotiating individual licensing deals with a divided Spanishnews industry that could allow the U.S. tech giant's newsservice to resume in the country, three sources close to thematter told Reuters.
Google News, which links to third party content, closed inSpain in late 2014 in response to legislation which meant it hadto pay a mandatory collective licensing fee to re-publishheadlines or snippets of news.
Now the thorny issue is back on the table as Spain preparesto implement the 2019 European Union copyright directive byJune. While that requires Google, Facebook and others toshare revenue with publishers, the government could allow thecompanies to negotiate individual deals with content providers.
Spain's Culture Ministry said the government was working ona draft bill, but declined to give further details.
A spokeswoman for Google Spain said publishers should befree to choose their own business model. "The copyright lawshould not make it mandatory to put a paid licence in place,"she said.
Facebook faced a backlash from publishers and politicianslast week after blocking people in Australia from accessing andsharing news, escalating a dispute with the government thereover a planned law that would require it to share revenue withcontent providers.
The EU rules, however, do not force online platforms to payfor links posted to their news site by publishers, the maingrievance for Facebook in Australia, so their implementationcould pave the way for a series of deals.
"Google is in talks with Spanish editors about thepossibility of taking part in the Google News Showcaseprogramme," a source familiar with the process said, referringto the proposed new name for the service.
Two other sources said some preliminary agreements hadalready been reached, pending details of the new legislation.
STATUS QUO
Google recently agreed to pay $76 million to a group of 121French news publishers, infuriating many other local outlets,which deemed the deal unfair and opaque.
Some Spanish publishers represented by the AMI mediaassociation, such as El Mundo owner Unidad Editorial, are infavour of maintaining the current system which gives publishersthe right to levy licensing fees through a collective managemententity.
AMI general director Ramon Alonso said the model allows fora transparent and fair negotiation with Google and others, andprevents the exclusion of some publishers.
But others, including CLABE that represents 162 associateswith around a thousand news outlets including leading digitalbrands such as El Espanol or Eldiario.es, say they can reach abetter deal on their own and should be free to choose.
"We are trying to ensure that these agreements benefit asmany companies in the sector as possible," said Juan Zafra,CLABE secretary general.
The Independent Regional Press Association (AIE), a foundingmember of AMI, said in a letter published in all of its outletson Monday that it had been "seriously harmed" by the existingmodel, which brought no income from content and made Spain "aglobal digital exception".
Meanwhile, Microsoft and European media groups onMonday urged EU regulators to require online platforms to seekarbitration in disagreements over how to share revenues withnews publishers.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Andrei Khalip, KirstenDonovan)
