Marketing 3 min read

Google Reportedly Made $4.7 Billion From News Content in 2018

Pexels / Pixabay

Pexels / Pixabay

Last year, Google reportedly made a whopping $4.7 billion in advertising from news content. To put it in perspective, that’s as almost as much as the revenue of the entire online news industry.

On Monday, Arlington-based trade association, News Media Alliance released a study about the search engine giant.

The findings reveal that 16 percent to 40 percent of Google search results are news content. And in 2018, the search engine giant made $4.7 billion.

That’s $400 million less than the whole United States news industry’s $5.1 billion revenue from digital advertising.

Since the report doesn’t include the value of users’ data, News Media Alliance described the figure as conservative. The trade group believes that the revenue could be more.

Not everyone shared that belief.

The $4.7 Billion Value of Google’s News Content is “Fuzzy, At Best”

Some critics believe that the study’s methodology is far from perfect. Professor of practice at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, Bill Grueskin described the $4.7 Billion figure claim as “fuzzy, at best.”

In a statement to the Guardian, the professor said:

“The researchers appear to take a random, 2008 comment made at a conference, about Google News’ value, and extrapolate that to come up with a number that’s supposed to represent how much revenue that Google has made off the news business.”

Although big tech companies should be examined for their oversized role in the advertising business, Grueskin believes that News Alliances’ scrutiny does not hold up to the high standards of reporters and editors.

Google also condemned the study. The search engine giant argues that the research fails to acknowledge the value that Google’s news content provides.

According to a Google spokesperson:

“Every month, Google News and Google Search drive over 10 billion clicks to publishers’ websites, which drive subscriptions and significant ad revenue. We’ve worked very hard to be a collaborative and supportive technology and advertising partner to news publishers worldwide.”

Whatever the case may be, the report shows how much news media rely on tech companies for distribution. As a result, Facebook, Apple, and Google have profited disproportionately from the arrangement.

“News publishers need to continue to invest in quality journalism, and they can’t do that if the platforms take what they want without paying for it,” said the president for the News Media Alliance, David Chavern.

“Information wants to be free, but reporters need to get paid,” he concluded.

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Sumbo Bello

Sumbo Bello is a creative writer who enjoys creating data-driven content for news sites. In his spare time, he plays basketball and listens to Coldplay.

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