I have very fond memories of me as a young girl sitting at the kitchen table with my father, reading the morning newspaper and filling out the crossword puzzle together. The tradition continues to this day; when I visit him at home, we have breakfast together and lively conversations about the day’s news. I’ve always valued quality journalism and firmly believe that it is key to a functioning democracy.

People look to the news to make sense of their world and become more informed citizens. This can mean everything from breaking news to analysis of how trends and decisions may impact local communities. At Google, we’re dedicated to supporting the reporters and publishers who work tirelessly to deliver essential news. This support includes programs like the Google News Initiative (GNI), our effort to help news organizations and journalists thrive in a digital age, and also our news products like Subscribe with Google or Ad Manager. As a result, each month, Google sends more than 24 billion visits to publisher sites around the globe, for free.

On June 22, Google News returned to Spain thanks to an updated copyright law allowing Spanish media outlets – big and small – to make their own decisions on how their content is discovered and monetised. Today we are announcing the launch of Google News Showcase, our curated online news experience and licensing program.

News Showcase is now available in Spain with 60 publishers representing more than 140 publications, including national, regional and local news outlets like the ABC, Atresmedia, Catalunyapress, El Español, Europa Press, El País, La Tribuna de Toledo and Servimedia. Since we launched News Showcase in October 2020, we’ve signed deals with more than 1,700 news publications and have launched the product in more than 18 countries. These include Australia, United Kingdom, Japan, Colombia, Germany, Brazil, New Zealand, Canada, Portugal, Italy and Argentina.

News Showcase panels give participating publishers more ways to bring important news to readers and explain it in their own voice, along with more direct control of presentation and branding.

"For El Español, News Showcase represents a new distribution channel that attracts readers to our best content, and that will enhance quality journalism,” says Pedro J. Ramirez, President of digital media outlet, El Español. “We also believe that it can lay the foundation for a great subscription platform that the industry needs."

Carlos Nuñez, Chairman & CEO of Prisa Media, a leading Spanish media group is also supportive, saying that, “For Prisa Media, Google News Showcase helps bring visibility to online content produced by quality media outlets like ours."

News Showcase panels from our Spanish news partners will begin appearing on Google News on Android, iOS and the web, and in Discover on iOS and Android. The panels direct readers to the full articles on news publications’ websites, enabling them to deepen their relationships with readers.

As part of our licensing agreements with publishers for News Showcase, we're also paying participating news organizations to give readers access to a limited amount of their paywalled content. This feature means readers will have the opportunity to read more of a publisher’s articles than they would otherwise be able to, encouraging them to learn more about the publication — and potentially subscribe.

"The launch of News Showcase in Spain gives way to a new collaboration phase between Google and the news media,” says Rosalía Lloret, Director of elDiario.es, a digital media outlet in Spain. “We trust that this new platform will allow citizens to distinguish quality journalism from fake news, and engage audiences with hard working journalists across Spain, as is the case with eldiario.es"

"Enthusiasm and confidence define our partnership with Google News Showcase,” says Lois Blanco, General Director of La Voz de Galicia, a regional newspaper based in La Coruña (Spain). “It will allow us to strengthen the foundation of La Voz de Galicia, being very close to our community of readers with our reliable journalism."

“At La Voz de Lanzarote, we are excited to promote local information, one of Google's commitments with Google News Showcase,” says Pablo Muzás, CEO of La Voz de Lanzarote, a digital newspaper based in Lanzarote, a Spanish island. “Access to quality and truthful information is of vital importance for the cohesion and identity of local communities."

Google News Initiative programs in Spain

Through theGoogle News Initiative, we’ve provided digital growth training to more than 270 publishers in Spain since 2020. We’ve also hosted a series of bespoke programmes to help accelerate individual publishers’ digital transformation:

• Baynana Magazine, the first public service journalism magazine written in Arabic and Spanish, founded by and targeted at refugees, recently completed the intensive GNI Startups Lab Europe programme. Baynana offers useful information to the Arabic-speaking community in Spain and builds bridges between migrants, refugees and Spaniards.
• Three Spanish regional publishers, Diari de Tarragona, El Periódico and La Voz de Almería, are participating in WANIFRA Table Stakes Europe, a program to help local and regional newspapers find new ways to build local audiences and drive digital revenue growth.
• Henneo, a leading media group in Spain, promoted a media alliance called Alayans, uniting 17 publishers to create a future proofed monetization solution that doesn’t rely on third-party cookies. The data management technology helped publishers increase their paywall efficiency by 55% and digital advertising income increased by more than 200%.
• El Mundo, one of Spain’s largest newspapers, completely redesigned their app to provide a higher quality user experience, making it easier for their readers to engage with news content resulting in a 45% increase in the weekly install rate.

We’ve also invested in digital skills training for journalists in Spain. Since 2015, we've provided a range of training on digital tools to 18,000 journalists and journalism students across the country. In addition, our Journalism Resources website provides workshops to help journalists research and visualize their stories – with specific courses on digital verification and data journalism.

The launch of News Showcase is the latest in our efforts over many years to support publishers and journalists on their digital journey. Learn more about our efforts in Spain.

When the initial reports of the war in Ukraine emerged, I turned to news reports to better understand the rapidly evolving situation: from international media outlets reporting on the impact of the war in Europe, to my local community newspapers reporting on the resulting increase of fuel and food prices in Spain. But with so much news and information out there, it can be overwhelming to know where to start, or what to believe.

Today, on the global 20th anniversary of Google News, and after an almost eight-year hiatus, Google News is returning to Spain. This is thanks to an updated copyright law allowing Spanish media outlets – big and small – to make their own decisions about how their content can be discovered and how they want to monetise that content.

Through a dedicated website and app, soon available on Android and iOS, Google News helps readers find news from authoritative sources, from the world's biggest news websites to small, local and specialty publications. And by identifying and organizing links to stories from a wide range of news sources – a key tool in the fight against misinformation – we’re helping readers more easily discover the bigger picture of what’s going on around them. That includes finding more local stories from their communities, understanding the breaking news topics of the day nationally and globally, and seeing which stories have been fact checked by independent organizations.

Making it easier for readers to find the news they’re looking for doesn’t just benefit readers, it also helps publishers. Google News directs readers to publishers’ websites when they click on links – helping drive traffic to their content, where they can show ads and incentivize readers to subscribe. Research showed news consumption in Spain fell when we had to shut down Google News in 2014, and this led to a 10% reduction in traffic to Spanish publishers’ websites — with the greatest impact on smaller publishers.

On top of bringing Google News back to Spain, we’ll be working with publishers to reach agreements and bring Google News Showcase to the country as soon as possible. Google News Showcase is a licensing program and new product experience that pays publishers to curate content for story panels on Google News and Discover. Alongside this, we’ll continue to invest in products, programs and funding via the Google News Initiative.

Journalists play an important role in helping us understand important events as they unfold. They helped us sift through the huge amounts of information around COVID-19 and how it impacted our community. They follow national issues, help bring context to stories that will impact our lives, and they keep us informed about what’s happening in other countries and continents. We hope the return of Google News to Spain helps more people find the news they’re looking for, from diverse, authoritative publishers of all sizes from Spain and beyond, and provides even more support to the journalists and publishers who work tirelessly to deliver the news.

Last year, as reports of the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, there was an overwhelming amount of information about the new virus. Once the national lockdown was announced in Spain, my local and national news consumption skyrocketed as I looked for reliable information on the evolving situation. From the latest curfews in my hometown to whether public health restrictions allowed my family of five to sit down at a restaurant, news media provided critical information about the impact of the pandemic in my community.

One way people find news and information about important events is through Google News, a dedicated site and app which provides links to news stories. It helps readers find news from trustworthy and authoritative sources, from the world's biggest news websites to small, local and specialist publications, and directs them to the publishers’ websites when they click on links. For publishers, Google News provides a valuable way for their content to be discovered by readers and to help grow their business by turning readers into subscribers.

This service is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world — but not in Spain.

Google News returns to Spain

In 2014, we closed Google News in Spain due to local legislation. Today, we’re announcing that Google News will soon be available once again in Spain. We made this decision as a result of a new Royal Decree implementing the European Copyright Directive, introduced today by the Spanish government.

This is good news for readers in Spain. Starting early next year, Google News will provide links to useful and relevant news stories, from a wide range of sources, to help people in Spain find more information about current events and to dive deeper into those stories. Moreover, Google News helps people get more information from more news sources; a key tool in the fight against misinformation. For journalists and publishers, Google News helps them be discovered by more readers and generate valuable free traffic.

Working with news publishers

Along with the return of Google News, the new copyright law allows Spanish media outlets — big and small — to make their own decisions about how their content can be discovered and how they want to make money with that content. Over the coming months, we will be working with publishers to reach agreements which cover their rights under the new law.

Alongside this, we will work towards bringing Google News Showcase to Spain, a licensing program and new product experience which pays publishers to curate content for story panels across Google News and Discover.

Sustainable journalism

We believe that technology companies, news organizations and governments need to collaborate to enable a strong future for journalism. Over the years, we’ve taken many steps to support the evolution and long-term sustainability of journalism, from sending billions of visits every month to news websites globally to improving the ways that publishers who choose to be included in products like Google Search and News appear to readers, and the Google News Initiative’s efforts to help publishers transform their business models and spur growth.

We’ve also helped publishers make money by providing tools and technology that help them run digital advertising on their websites and apps. Every year, we pay out billions of dollars directly to the publishing partners in our ad network. In Spain, between 2018 to 2020, Google paid out more than $130 million to the top five news publisher partners in our ad network.

We are thrilled that we will soon be able to bring Google News back to Spain and help connect people with more news and information that matters to them and their community. To read more about how we support Spanish publishers in Spain, please visit: g.co/ApoyandoMediosEspaña