Google to Waive Ad Fees for News Publishers

Google announced that it would waive ad fees for news publishers as part of “journalism relief effort” during the pandemic.

The current coronavirus crisis has led to a decline in advertising. And that’s is an essential source of income for news organizations. Meanwhile, news coverage of the global health crisis is rising every day.

In a blog post, managing director of global News partnerships at Google, Jason Washing said:

“As the coronavirus pandemic takes a toll on our global economy, the Google News Initiative is working to identify ways to provide immediate financial support to those news organizations around the world, producing original journalism.”

To support these news sites, Google said it would waive fees for publishers using its ad manager platform. They wouldn’t have to pay the tech giant for publishing ads for the next five months.

According to Washing, details of the waived ad fees should emerge in the coming days. Aside from the requirement, news agencies will also know what they can expect to see in their account statement, says Washing.

How Google is Supporting News Publishers During COVID-19 Pandemic

Access to public information is essential during the current coronavirus crisis.

Perhaps now more than ever, internet users depend on quality journalism to remain informed and safe. In turn, the ads that appear alongside news coverage can help fund the journalists who keep the news site running.

That’s why the Richard Gingras, vice president of News at Google. announced a Journalism Emergency Relief Fund last week.

“The Google News Initiative wants to help by launching a Journalism Emergency Relief Fund to deliver urgent aid to thousands of small, medium, and local news publishers globally,” he said.

According to Google, the fund is accessible to news organizations that produce original news for local communities.

The tech company didn’t set an aggregate figure for the fund. However, it stated that the relief effort ranges from low thousands of dollars for small news agencies to low tens of thousands for the larger ones.