Google Plays Nice, Hooks Up With Eight European News Orgs, Contributes €150m to Venture (GOOG; EVIL)

From The Guardian:

Google is to admit to making mistakes in working with news organisations as it announces a new digital partnership with eight European publishers.

The Digital News Initiative is likely to be seen as an attempt by the company to improve its image after being accused of distorting internet search results and acting anti-competitively by European regulators two weeks ago.

The European Union is investigating whether Google has abused its 90% market share in search to illegally promote its other products and services. News is not directly affected by this investigation. However, publishers have complained for years about the impact of Google’s use of their content.

In the new partnership with eight publishers, including the Guardian, Google is to establish a working group to focus on product development as well as providing a €150m (£107m) innovation fund over three years, alongside additional training and research. Publishers are keenest to explore the product development which Google promises will aim to “increase revenue, traffic and audience engagement”.

In a speech in London on Tuesday morning, Carlo D’Asaro Biondo, head of Google’s strategic relationships in Europe, is expected to say: “We recognise that technology companies and news organisations are part of the same information ecosystem and we want to play our part in the common fight to find more sustainable models for news.

“We firmly believe Google has always aimed to be friend and partner to the news industry, but we also accept we’ve made some mistakes along the way.

“We are determined to play our part in ongoing dialogue and business partnership with the aim of building something more sustainable.”

Company insiders downplayed the suggestion that the exercise was an attempt at garnering good publicity soon after the announcement of the anti-trust probe. Talks with the publishers – which include the Financial Times, Les Echos in France, NRC Media in the Netherlands, El Pais in Spain and La Stampa in Italy, Faz and Die Zeit in Germany as well as the Guardian – started as long ago as last summer....MORE