Google officially launched its new news experience called Google News Showcase in the United Kingdom and Argentina. For readers, the new service includes the ability to access select paywalled content for free.

Google News Showcase is a licensing program for news publishers and news content. Within it, local, national, and independent publishers can provide content that will help them attract potential subscribers. Initially, the program was launched in Australia.

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Google’s FAQ notes that publishers are paid once a month for curated news stories for the tech giant, as well as for access to content that is paywalled.

As part of Google News Showcase, the tech giant has signed partnerships with some of the most prominent media publishers in the UK, including The Independent, The Financial Times, Reuters, The Telegraph, and more. From now on, these partners will be shown within the section of Google News Showcase.

In Argentina, Google signed partnerships with 40 news publications, including El Litoral, Crónica, El Economista, Clarin, and others.

Google's new news experience aims to highlight regional content from media publishers that cannot otherwise compete with large organizations and media outlets. Google also says that the new initiative will help a "digital transformation" for local news outlets that do not have enough recourses, unlike the industry giants.

Google News Showcase consists of cards that are called “story panels” that users can swipe. These panels feature bullet points, timelines, and lists of articles, with video and audio promised to be added in the future.

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Every panel will have the publisher branding in the top-left corner. They will be available in Google News for iOS, Android, and mobile web, as well as Discover on iOS.

According to Google, News Showcase now features over 450 global publications in Canada, Australia, Germany, Brazil, France, UK, Japan, and Argentina.

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