paris google and a french publishers lobby said on thursday they had agreed a copyright framework under which the us tech giant will pay news publishers for content online in a first for europethe move paves the way for individual licensing agreements for french publications some of which have seen revenues drop with the rise of the internet and declines in print circulationthe deal which aims to provide a sustainable way to pay publishers is likely to be closely watched by other platforms such as facebook a lawyer involved in the talks saidalphabetowned google and the alliance de la presse dinformation gnrale apig said in a statement that the framework included criteria such as the daily volume of publications monthly internet traffic and contribution to political and general informationgoogle has so far only signed licensing agreements with a few publications in france including national daily newspapers le monde and le figaro these take into account the framework agreed with apig a google spokesman saidgoogles vehicle for paying news publishers called google news showcase is another new product it has developed which allows publishers to curate their own content online it is so far only available in brazil and germanygoogle and apig did not say how much money could be distributed to apigs members who include most french national and local publishers and details on how the remuneration would be calculated were not disclosedthe deal follows months of bargaining between google french publishers and news agencies over how to apply revamped eu copyright rules which allow publishers to demand a fee from online platforms showing extracts of their newsthe worlds biggest search engine initially fought against the idea of paying publishers for content saying their websites benefited from greater traffic brought by google