Google will stop allowing publishers to add publications to the Google Publisher Center manually. Instead, Google will automatically add eligible publications pages later this year.
This change will likely lead to even more confusion around Google News inclusion, which we have had for years since Google changed the inclusion process back in 2019.
What Google said. Google wrote:
Google added that previously this feature allowed publishers to manually create a source page for users to follow. But going forward, “publishers with manually created publication pages will continue to have access to customization features until later this year, when pages will shift to being automatically created. Users will continue to be able to follow their favorite publications.”
“Content from publishers that adheres to our content policies is automatically eligible for consideration in Google News and across News surfaces,” Google added.
What it looked like. Here is a screenshot within Google Publisher Center of how to add a publication – note this is going away:
Why we care. I expect this change to cause more frustration and confusion amongst publishers. As you know, the whole Google News inclusion process, which was once a clear and straight forward process, is now automated and very unclear and completely not transparent.
This will only make things even more confusing for publishers.
Postscript. Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, replied on X about this. He wrote:
