The company is replacing the decade-old FCF with Flexible Sampling, which allows publishers instead to decide how many (if any) articles they want to allow potential subscribers to access. Google says it’s also working on a suite of new tools to help publishers reach new audiences and grow revenue.
Via FCF, users could access an article for free but would be prompted to log-in or subscribe if they clicked anywhere else on the page. Publishers were required to allow three free articles per day which Google indexed so that they appeared in searches for a particular topic or keyword.
Google is working to make subscibing to publishers easier like single-click sign-ups through Android devices and Google services. It’s also working to allow seamless access to subscriber content across publisher sites, Google Newsstand, Google Search, and Google News.
Google also is looking into giving publishers its user data to target potential subscribers.
