Indian newspapers demand 85% ad revenue from Google

Indian Newspaper Society or INS, on Thursday, wrote to Google India Manager Sanjay Gupta demanding 85 per cent of the ad revenue to newspapers whose content is published on the search engine.

The letter, penned by INS President L Adimoolam, alleged that Google's authenticity in India is based on the content created by newspapers with considerable expenditure for gathering and then verifying it.

As advertising shifted to the digital space, newspapers have been faced with a major crunch in revenue. Terming the current policy for revenue sharing 'opaque', the letter reads, "Advertising has been the financial backbone of the news industry. However, newspaper publishers are seeing their share of the advertising pie shrinking in the digital space, even as Google is taking a 'giant share of advertising spends', leaving publishers with a small share." INS, which represents over 1000 publishers, has also called for further transparency in the revenue reports provided to publishers by Google.

The statement has further alleged that Google amplifies news from sites that are not credible, thus "amplifying misinformation and propagation of fake news."

The state follows the Australian Parliament's ruling on Thursday, mandating that Google and Facebook pay media companies for their content. While Google has already entered into contracts with several Australian media companies, Facebook has been relatively more hesitant and also banned news on its platform for a day. Facebook is presently negotiating with the Australian government.

The letter followed the Australian Parliament's ruling on Thursday to make Google and Facebook pay media companies for the content. While Google has entered into deals with Australian media companies, Facebook instead banned news on the platform in the state, following which it is now negotiating with the Australian government. Since its inception, big-tech companies have been curating content on their platforms, parting little of the revenue to content creators.