Google (GOOG, Financial) made a new play with publishers and it could potentially be huge
They're kicking off a pilot with around twenty national news outlets to feed licensed articles into their AI features and give publishers a slice of the pie.
According to Bloomberg, each partnership will be tailored to specific products—think AI Overviews or Gemini chat—which means terms will look different depending on the feature and the outlet.
This follows Google's billion‑dollar News Showcase launch back in 2020, which now covers more than 2,300 titles in 22 countries. They also struck a real‑time feed deal with the Associated Press earlier this year.
Why it matters is simple: news sites have watched ad dollars slip away as AI tools and chatbots siphon off clicks. This licensing pilot could create a reliable new revenue stream for publishers while keeping Google's AI fueled by high‑quality journalism.
We'll be watching closely to see how those first twenty partners shape the program. If it takes off, this could become the blueprint for how tech companies and newsrooms collaborate in the AI era.
