Google earned an estimated $4.7 billion from news content in 2018 without paying the publishers who created it, and the industry is demanding a reckoning.
The figure comes from research published by the News Media Alliance, which found that Google generated $4.7 billion through news search and Google News in 2018 alone. David Chavern, president and CEO of the Alliance, which represents more than 2,000 newspapers nationwide including The New York Times, was direct about what that means. "They make money from this system," he said. "News publishers should get a better result."
To put that number in perspective, the $4.7 billion Google earned from news content is nearly equal to the $5.1 billion the entire US information industry generated from digital advertising last year. And the News Media Alliance warned that its estimate is conservative. It does not account for the value of the personal data Google collects from consumers each time they click on a news article. Every click feeds the company's advertising machine, building detailed consumer profiles that make Google's ad targeting among the most precise in the world.
Terrance C.Z. Egger, CEO of the Philadelphia Inquirer PBC, which publishes The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and philly.com, did not mince words about the imbalance. "The study openly illustrates what we all know so clearly and painfully," Egger said. "The current dynamics of the relationship between platforms and our industry is devastating."
The News Media Alliance released its study ahead of a House subcommittee hearing examining the interrelationships between major technology companies and media businesses. That timing was deliberate. Lawmakers have been paying closer attention to the market power of platforms like Google, and the newspaper industry sees an opening to make its case.
Chavern pressed the point beyond economics and into the civic stakes. "News is an important form of content supporting civil society," he added. "I think everyone, from readers to writers to politicians, understands that if journalism is over, it is a terrible result whether we can support the republic."
The Alliance based its report in part on research conducted by economic consultant Keystone Strategy. Keystone worked from a statistic that was made public in 2008, when a Google executive estimated that Google News generated roughly $100 million in revenue. The consultants then factored in how much the company's advertising business has grown since then, along with other variables, to arrive at the current figure.
News plays an outsized role in Google's ecosystem. According to the study, approximately 40 percent of clicks on the platform's trending queries are for news content. That is content Google does not pay for, even though it frequently displays publishers' headlines and snippets verbatim. The company benefits from the traffic, the engagement, and the data. Publishers get exposure, but exposure alone does not sustain newsrooms.
Industry experts have long pointed out that major technology companies need to show tangible appreciation for the content news publishers produce. The argument is straightforward: without original reporting, platforms would have far less to surface in search results, and their advertising value would diminish accordingly.
The broader tension here is not going away. As local newspapers continue to shrink and consolidate, the question of who profits from journalism and who funds it becomes more urgent. Google has built an extraordinarily profitable business in part by organizing and distributing content it did not create. Publishers are increasingly unwilling to accept that arrangement without compensation. What happens next will likely depend on whether regulators in Washington and beyond decide the current dynamic needs fixing, or whether the market will force a resolution on its own.
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