Head of the Portuguese Confederation of Social Communication Media, Alberico Fernandes, while speaking to Reuters, said Google should pay for the news content that appears on Google News search engine.
“Google showed readiness to collaborate with media groups to help us modernize and make our content more profitable,” Fernandes said.
“Our position is that the content has to be paid for. We showed that our focus is to be paid for Google News using our news,” he added.
The demand comes just a month after Google came to an agreement with the French government over a similar case, where Google agreed to be paying €60 million Euros into a fund that will see the French media develop their internet presence.
Fernandes said an earlier meeting with Google did not yield any fruit, but the company had agreed to hold further talks to resolve the issue.
Francisco Pinto Balsemao, head of Portuguese media, is blaming search engines for grabbing more than 90 per cent of all paid advertising on the internet, leading to a decrease in revenue for media houses.
The Portuguese publishers are demanding all links to stories that appear on Google news lead paragraphs should be paid for, as the country continues to experience one of the worst recession for the last 40 years.
The country has experienced a sharp decline in advertising and sales, leading to the closure of many media outlets as the recession bites.
It will be interesting to see if Africa will follow Portugal and France, as news content from the continent continues to increase on the internet, with more and more people having access to internet consequently providing a huge market for advertisers.