Google Looks at a Way to Pay for News
By Jared Newman
Most of what you see on Google News nowadays is free to view, but that doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way forever. Company documents, dug up by Nieman Lab, show that Google has pitched a payment system to the Newspaper Association of America. Under the system, which is in its early planning stages, Google would handle per-article or subscription payments for multiple newspapers, reducing transaction cost “by aggregating purchases across merchants and over time.” This would also allow readers to have one payment system across multiple news organizations. Google says these documents were submitted in response to a request from the NAA, but it’s not clear if the plan will go anywhere. [via Nieman Lab]
