Google is taking another stab at the news business, this time with a mobile news app designed to combine multiple sources in a single reader while selling more digital subscriptions.

The app, called Newsstand, marks the search company’s latest attempt to woo publishers after a love-hate relationship stretching back more than a decade.

The search company said it would launch with 1,900 publications, pointing to an easing of tensions as readers have flocked to mobile devices and publishers have grown more comfortable with the new digital terms of trade from companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon.
Google's new approach is a cross between Apple's mobile Newsstand, which acts purely as a store for readers to find and download publishers' own apps, and the Flipboard magazine app, which aggregates content from different sources in a single magazine-style interface. Readers who discover content through the app can click through and register for free and subscription services. The Financial Times is among a number of news sites with paywalls, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, that are on the service at launch.

The new approach marks a shift in strategy from Google’s last attempt to break into news subscriptions nearly three years ago.

At that time, the search company tried to take advantage of unease in the publishing industry caused by Apple’s imposition of a 30 per cent fee for subscriptions sold through its iTunes store, offering instead to take only a 10 per cent cut.

Few publishers signed up, however, and the service, called One Pass, was ended little more than a year later.

Google refused to comment on the revenue split it is taking with Newsstand, but one person familiar with the terms said the search company was seeking about 30 per cent.

That has become “a quasi-industry norm at this point” that publishers have grown more comfortable with, said Ken Doctor, a news industry analyst with Outsell.

The Newsstand app will be featured on all new Android phones and will be available from Google’s Play store, the company said.

– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013)