Google is about to close Google News Spain. This change will only affect that one particular version of Google News. The reason has to do with a new Spanish law that will go into affect in January of 2015. Google will also be removing Spanish media outlets from Google News.
The new law requires Google to pay for using publisher’s content. The law, which was passed in October of 2014, is a copyright law. It requires content aggregators that post links and excerpts of news articles to pay a fee to the Association of Editors of Spanish Dailies. This law also affects other content aggregators but has been referred to as the “Google Tax”.
Google’s official update describes the situation this way:
This new legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet of their publications, whether they want to or not. As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable. So, it’s with real sadness that on 16 December (before the new law comes into effect in January) we’ll remove Spanish publishers from Google News, and close Google News in Spain.
It appears that the intent of this Spanish law was to protect Spain’s print media industry. I suspect the new law will end up causing it harm, instead. The removal of links to their content is going to cost them the traffic they would have gotten via Google News Spain and other content aggregators.