Google is reportedly planning a new payment system called Newspass which will provide newspaper publishers with micropayments for links to their properties from Google News.

According to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Google has been contacting Italian newspapers about the service, which would let users buy news content with a single click and allow publishers to use a single framework for charging for content across web, mobile and tablet devices. (via MediaBuyerPlanner).

Such a service would help newspapers and other news organizations monetize their content, something they have been ever more determined to do recent years.

The platform is already in testing phase, according to the reports.

How It Could Work

When users perform a search on Google News, both paid and unpaid results would show up. When they choose a paid result, they would be charged a fee through Google Checkout, reports Fortune.

Industry-saving Offering?

If Google Newspass comes to fruition, it could be exactly the sort of solution the newspaper industry has been seeking. One of the challenges of monetizing news content has been that news is available for free from so many sources that a user always has the option to choose another source. But if there were a single, simple payment system that news sources could use, more would likely be eager to jump on the paid content bandwagon, resulting in fewer free sources of news. And, with the ability to purchase the content with a single click via Google Checkout, more users would be far more likely to make that choice than they are now, when each news source has its own payment system.

It is unclear from the La Repubblica article whether the service would be launched first in Italy alone or whether it would have a wider launch. paidContent points out that some of Google's worst confrontations with the news industry have been in Italy, where publishers have said Google’s lack of transparency in the way it handles both its search engine and Google News have harmed newspapers.