Canada print media to get two-thirds of Google’s payment to news outlets

Canada’s print media will receive nearly two-thirds of an annual Can$100 million (US$75 million) payment from Google to the country’s news outlets in exchange for distribution of their content, the federal government announced Friday.

At the end of November, after months of negotiations, Ottawa and Google announced a “historic” agreement, where the tech giant would pay Canadian media companies compensation for the loss of advertising revenue.

“The share that television and radio will receive is capped at 30 percent, that of CBC/Radio-Canada (the Canadian public broadcaster) at seven percent, which leaves the remaining 63 percent for the written press,” a federal official told journalists at a briefing.

Most of the payout will go to the print media because it is “really dependent” on online platforms to distribute its content, the official added.

“Canada has accomplished something historic,” Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge told reporters.

She recalled that “newsrooms are experiencing a crisis which affects journalism, a foundation of our democracy.”

The agreement between Canada and Google is part of the Online News Act, which aims to support a struggling Canadian news sector that has seen a flight of advertising dollars and hundreds of publications closed in the last decade. It comes into force on Tuesday.

Meta, the Facebook parent company which is also affected by the new legislation, still opposes the text which it called “fundamentally flawed.”

Since August 1, Facebook and Instagram have blocked news content in Canada to avoid having to compensate media companies.

Many Canadian media outlets are financially struggling, with several announcing layoff plans in recent weeks.