Google have taken the plunge and announced reforms to the way they deal with news articles in search. That is basically an admission that they have been profiting unfairly from online news despite earlier protests that they hadn't.
The pressure was building and perhaps this middle ground proposition of limiting free access to news sites will defuse the tension which must be a cause of concern. The idea in principle, is to give publishers the right to select how many times a consumer can click through to their site without being forced to subscribe.
But there's a problem here and that's the potential danger of forcing potential customers to other publications. For example, if you know you're at your (let's say) five a day limit for a particular paper, you may well choose to view a breaking story with a rival, in order to avoid any sort of payment. With so many competitors reporting the same things you'd have to have a real loyalty to one brand in order to avoid 'payment dodging'.
So I doubt whether this reflex reaction from Google will feed the beast determined to bring change, but it does prove Google are anxious, and proves it's the publishers who are taking control.
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