As Scott Shackford
noted last week, Google News is pulling out of Spain after the
newspaper industry there, represented by the Asociación de Editores de Diarios
Españoles (AEDE) successfully lobbied to force
newspapers to charge Google for the inclusion of their content in
news search results. Yes, really. Since Google News makes no money,
Google found this a bit rich and decided to close shop rather than
hemorrhage cash for the privilege of including Spanish newspaper
results. Now, the AEDE wants Spanish and European Union government
officials to force Google to keep the local edition of Google News
operating. And, presumably, paying newspapers.
The
closure announcement last week from Richard Gingras, head of
Google News read, in part:
[S]adly, as a result of a
new Spanish law, we’ll shortly have to close Google News in
Spain. Let me explain why. 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. As Google News itself makes no money (we do not
show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not
sustainable. So it’s with real sadness that on 16 December (before
the new law comes into effect in January) we’ll remove Spanish
publishers from Google News, and close Google News in Spain.
You’d think Spanish newspapers would be thrilled, since AEDE has
fulminated for
years that “Google es dominante en varios mercados y está
abusando de esa posición de dominio.” No Google News, no Google
dominance, right?
Not so much. The Spain Report (based in the UK and so
likely to continue appearing in the occasional news search)
notes that the Spanish newspaper industry is in a bit of a
panic over Google’s decision to withdraw from a market where its
presence has made so many Spaniards unhappy.
The Spanish Newspaper Publishers’ Association (AEDE) issued a
statement last night saying that Google News was “not just the
closure of another service given its dominant market position”,
recognising that Google’s decision: “will undoubtedly have a
negative impact on citizens and Spanish businesses”.“Given the dominant position of Google (which in Spain controls
almost all of the searches in the market and is an authentic
gateway to the Internet), AEDE requires the intervention of Spanish
and community authorities, and competition authorities, to
effectively protect the rights of citizens and companies”.
Hoist, meet petard.
Who knew that the logical outcome of forcing businesses to
participate in the market only on terms really favorable to
connected players would be that some might choose not to
participate at all? So the next logical step is to make them stay
in business!
AEDE’s denunciations of Google have often been issued jointly
with
German publishing associations, which have yet to win their way
to a legislative victory comparable to that of their Spanish
counterparts. Let’s see if they maintain their enthusiasm after
recent developments.
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