Calzada and Gil (2016)

From Copyright EVIDENCE

Advertising Architectural Publishing of books, periodicals and other publishing Programming and broadcasting Computer programming Computer consultancy Creative, arts and entertainment Cultural education Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities

Film and motion pictures Sound recording and music publishing Photographic activities PR and communication Software publishing Video game publishing Specialised design Television programmes Translation and interpretation

1. Relationship between protection (subject matter/term/scope) and supply/economic development/growth/welfare 2. Relationship between creative process and protection - what motivates creators (e.g. attribution; control; remuneration; time allocation)? 3. Harmony of interest assumption between authors and publishers (creators and producers/investors) 4. Effects of protection on industry structure (e.g. oligopolies; competition; economics of superstars; business models; technology adoption) 5. Understanding consumption/use (e.g. determinants of unlawful behaviour; user-generated content; social media)

A. Nature and Scope of exclusive rights (hyperlinking/browsing; reproduction right) B. Exceptions (distinguish innovation and public policy purposes; open-ended/closed list; commercial/non-commercial distinction) C. Mass digitisation/orphan works (non-use; extended collective licensing) D. Licensing and Business models (collecting societies; meta data; exchanges/hubs; windowing; crossborder availability) E. Fair remuneration (levies; copyright contracts) F. Enforcement (quantifying infringement; criminal sanctions; intermediary liability; graduated response; litigation and court data; commercial/non-commercial distinction; education and awareness)

Source Details

Calzada and Gil (2016)
Title: What Do News Aggregators Do? Evidence from Google News in Spain and Germany
Author(s): Calzada, J., Gil, J.
Year: 2016
Citation: Calzada, J., & Gil, R. (2016). What Do News Aggregators Do? Evidence from Google News in Spain and Germany.
Link(s): Definitive , Open Access
Key Related Studies:
Discipline:
Linked by: Athey, Mobius and Pal (2017)
About the Data
Data Description: The study contains information for 151 domains, including 50 news outlets from Spain, 32 from Germany, 29 from France, and 40 from Italy.
Data Type: Secondary data
Secondary Data Sources:
Data Collection Methods:
Data Analysis Methods:
Industry(ies):
Country(ies):
Cross Country Study?: Yes
Comparative Study?: Yes
Literature review?: No
Government or policy study?: No
Time Period(s) of Collection:
  • 2014-2015
Funder(s):
  • Not Stated

Abstract

"The impact of aggregators on news outlets is ambiguous. In particular, the existing theoretical literature highlights that although aggregators create a market expansion effect when they bring visitors to news outlets, they also generate a substitution effect if some visitors switch from the news outlets to the aggregators. Using the shutdown of the Spanish edition of Google News in December of 2014 and difference-in-differences methodology, this paper empirically examines the relevance of these two effects. We show the shutdown of Google News in Spain decreased the number of daily visits to Spanish news outlets by 11%, and that this effect was larger in sports outlets than in national and regional outlets. We then analyze the effect of the opt-in policy adopted by the German edition of Google News in October of 2014. Although such policy did not significantly affect the daily visits of all outlets that opted out, it reduced by 7% the number of visits of the outlets controlled by the publisher Axel Springer. Our results demonstrate the existence of a market-expansion effect through which news aggregators increase consumers’ awareness of news outlets’ contents, thereby increasing their number of visits. We find no evidence of a substitution effect in our two empirical settings."

Main Results of the Study

The main results of the study are as follows:

  • The shutdown of the Spanish edition of Google News shows a significant reduction in the audience of news outlets, driven by the reduction in both search and direct visitors.
  • News aggregators are an important channel for attracting visitors to news outlets. Moreover, we do not observe the existence of a substitution effect that may have increased the number of direct visits to news outlets upon the shutdown of Google News Spain.
  • The findings suggest aggregators may increase direct visits to news outlets by allowing consumers to “rediscover” new sources of information.
  • The examination of the German case shows that changes in the size of the excerpts the aggregators release modify the traffic news outlets receive. The decision to opt out significantly reduced the number of daily visits to Axel Springer outlets, and similar to the Spanish case, the reduction in direct and search visits drove this effect.
  • Note, however, that in the German case, the reduction in search visits was also motivated by a competition effect, because Google only exhibited short excerpts for Axel Springer’s links, whereas it showed regular excerpts and images for the outlets that had opted in since the beginning of the policy.

Policy Implications as Stated By Author

  • News aggregators benefit news outlets, even more so when news outlets have a small brand power.
  • The results of the study show that on average no outlet is negatively affected by aggregators.
  • The study finds that outlets benefit from news aggregators both through an increase in traffic and increases in other performance indicators such as advertising revenues, advertising slots, and the number of advertisers.
  • The findings of this study are particularly relevant for understanding the impact a new copyright legislation aiming at limiting the aggregators' access to the publishers' contents could have.


Coverage of Study

Coverage of Fundamental Issues
Issue Included within Study
Relationship between protection (subject matter/term/scope) and supply/economic development/growth/welfare
Green-tick.png
Relationship between creative process and protection - what motivates creators (e.g. attribution; control; remuneration; time allocation)?
Harmony of interest assumption between authors and publishers (creators and producers/investors)
Effects of protection on industry structure (e.g. oligopolies; competition; economics of superstars; business models; technology adoption)
Green-tick.png
Understanding consumption/use (e.g. determinants of unlawful behaviour; user-generated content; social media)
Green-tick.png
Coverage of Evidence Based Policies
Issue Included within Study
Nature and Scope of exclusive rights (hyperlinking/browsing; reproduction right)
Green-tick.png
Exceptions (distinguish innovation and public policy purposes; open-ended/closed list; commercial/non-commercial distinction)
Mass digitisation/orphan works (non-use; extended collective licensing)
Green-tick.png
Licensing and Business models (collecting societies; meta data; exchanges/hubs; windowing; crossborder availability)
Green-tick.png
Fair remuneration (levies; copyright contracts)
Enforcement (quantifying infringement; criminal sanctions; intermediary liability; graduated response; litigation and court data; commercial/non-commercial distinction; education and awareness)

Datasets

Sample size: 151
Level of aggregation: Domains
Period of material under study: June 2014-May 2015