Google Offers to Limit News Access

In a bid to placate struggling media companies but keep content in search results, Google has offered publishers a program that limits users to five free articles a day. A user who clicks through from Google to the same news source more than five times a day would be automatically rerouted to a subscription or registration page, Reuters reports.

"As newspapers consider charging for access to their online content, some publishers have asked: Should we put up pay walls or keep our articles in Google news and Google search?" a Google rep said. "In fact they can do both." The change to Google's First Click Free program—which allows readers to circumvent pay walls by clicking through from Google—will only be offered to news sources that already charge for content, BBC reports.
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