Google is set to close its Spanish news service in the next week ahead of a new policy being introduced which will allow the country’s publisher to charge for displaying their content.
According to a blog post by Google’s head of news, Richard Gingras, the search giant will end the service on 16th December.
“This new legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not,” stated Gingras. “As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable.”
The move will end the availability of Spanish news in Google platform and this is expected to cause much difficulty for Spanish people in accessing their national news with easy search in Google.
Spanish government introduced the new legislation to protect the Print Media Industry in its country, which is reeling under dwindling circulation like anywhere in the world, due to the growth of Digital Medium.
Google News is currently available in 70 international editions and across 35 languages.
Earlier, German government introduced similar copyright legislation, only to be scrapped after a short period, based on the request of news media owners, who witnessed a huge unprecedented drop in visitors, to their portal, that prompted them to re-think on the legislation.
