Google News re-opens in Spain after eight-year shutdown

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Alphabet reopened Google News in Spain on Wednesday, eight years after it shut down the service because of a Spanish rule forcing the company and other news aggregators to pay publishers for using snippets of their news.

Madrid last year transposed European Union copyright rules, revamped in 2020, into legislation, allowing media outlets to negotiate directly with the tech giant.

The move prompted an announcement from Google last year that it would re-open Google News in the following year.

“Today, on the global 20th anniversary of Google News, and after an almost eight-year hiatus, Google News is returning to Spain,” Fuencisla Clemares, vice president for Iberia, said in a blogpost.

She said the company also planned to launch Google News Showcase, its vehicle for paying news publishers, as soon as possible in Spain.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Mark Potter)