Indian newspapers ask Google to pay them for using their content

The Indian Newspaper Society wrote to Google on Thursday asking it to compensate Indian newspapers comprehensively for the use of their content, and to share details of its advertising revenues.

In a letter to Google India country manager Sanjay Gupta, INS president L Admiloolam said that Google should increase publisher share of advertising revenue to 85%. The first such demand raised of Google in the country, the letter coincided with the Australian Parliament passing a law requiring Google and Facebook to pay media companies for content.

The INS letter said newspapers employ thousands of journalists on the ground at considerable cost for gathering information, and that this content was not just proprietary but gave Google its “authenticity in India”.