Spanish publishers want Google News back

Spanish newspaper publishers want Google News to remain open in Spain. According to the publishers, Google News is too dominant to just disappear. Last week, Google announced the closure of its Spanish News branch, due to the introduction of a new law.

The Spanish publishers want the Spanish government and European competition authorities to take measures to reverse the closure of Google News, The Spain Report reports. According to the industry association of the newspapers, AEDE, the closure of Google News in the country is “not just the disappearance of a service” because of the dominant position the website would occupy.

Google announced Thursday that it would shut down Google News in Spain. The company does not want to cooperate with a law that requires newspaper publishers to charge Google News for listing their websites. According to Google, it is not sustainable to pay publishers, because Google News itself does not make any money. The site will be closed on Tuesday, before the law goes into effect on January 1.

AEDE was precisely one of the driving forces of the law; it seems that the organization does not want the law to be reversed, but that Google News remains open and that Google pays for the references to Spanish newspapers.