Google Fast Flip and contextualised advertising hopes to end concerns the search giant gives away news content for free

From an experimental news site that replicates the experience of flicking through a newspaper to micropayment plans and dinners with editors, Google seems to be on a mission to convince publishers it is a friend not foe. In the last week alone, the search giant has launched two services it says will drive up newspaper revenues.

Its UK head, Matt Brittin, denies that the exercise is a charm offensive and cites existing partnerships with companies such as Trinity Mirror as evidence that the battle is partly won. "We need to get our story across perhaps a little more clearly than we have done," he says.

"We want to help newspaper publishers but we are a technology partner. What I mean is, we don't presume to have all the answers, we are not newspaper publishers. But what we do see ourselves as is part of the eco-system and we have got a role, we think that the stuff which we are good at is helping people find content and helping people to make money online."

Bigger audiences

For a start, Google helps newspapers reach bigger audiences thanks in particular to Google News, he says. The aggregator was born out of the frustration of Google engineers on September 11, 2001 at not being able to isolate news items in searches for what was happening in New York and elsewhere. It now provides breaking news from 25,000 sources and sends a billion clicks a month to publishers.

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