San Francisco — After months of ongoing discussions, search engine giant Google and the Associated Press announced on Monday they have resolved a deadlock over extending their licensing deal, which allows it to host full-text news articles from the US news agency on Google sites such as Google News.
“We hope for future collaborations, including on ways Google and AP can work together to create a better user experience and new revenue opportunities,” Josh Cohen, senior business product manager with Google, wrote in an official blog post on Monday.
A hosting deal that enabled Google News to host news articles published by the AP on the site three years ago, but the licensing deal expired earlier this year and Google and the AP had been in and out of negotiations since then about how to revise it. It took almost six months to move beyond a temporary deal to something that appears more permanent, according to a post on the Google News blog.
Google and the AP had consented in February to keep older AP content on Google’s site, but Google stopped adding new content in January, until an extension of their deal could be finalized.
Cohen’s brief statement did not disclosed any details about the length of the agreement extension, its dollar value or the stipulations on how and what content can or can not be used by Google, and the company also did not elaborate on what new revenue opportunities it might pursue.
The undisclosed deal was concluded after what the AP described in a story as “months of sometimes thorny negotiations.” It replaces an agreement that expired in January.
The agreement enables Google to display AP content on such properties as Google News, the search engine giant’s popular news aggregator.
The Wall Street Journal, quoting “people having knowledge of the matter,” said the agreement will allow Google News to host AP articles for “at least two more years” and for Google to pay the AP “in the seven figures annually.”
“We have revived our existing licensing agreement with the Associated Press that permits us to host its content on Google properties such as Google News,” Google said on its blog.
In a separate statement, an AP spokesman said “AP and Google will also work together in a number of new areas, such as ways to improve discovery and distribution of news.”
Google did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Google initially began hosting AP content on Google News in 2007, when the company struck a licensing deal with the AP, as well as Agence-France Presse, the UK Press Association, and the Canadian Press. But, in January of this year, with negotiations apparently shoved on the back burner, Google stopped hosting AP stories on Google News, although the licensing agreement signed in 2006 was still active.
It is not clear if between January and today the agreement at some point lapsed entirely. AP CEO Tom Curley had also hinted that Google was not willing to accede to some of the AP’s demands, saying in October, “We have not talked. We have not talked. We have not talked with them in any serious way.”
The apparently rocky negotiations between Google and AP are emblematic of the tense, love-hate relationship Google has with news organizations. The AP’s demands reportedly included getting access to “real-time metrics” about its content and also better play for its stories. It is unclear if Google agreed to either. AP Chief Revenue Officer Jane Seagrave, said in a statement that “we are pleased that we were able to work out some differences and come to a deal that I think helps provide a better experience to consumers,” although she would not elaborate on what that improved experience would entail.
The AP, in a statement, said that under the renewed deal, the California-based search engine company and New York-based news agency will “work together in a number of new areas, such as ways to improve discovery and distribution of news.”