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Gingras talked about the importance of local news for a healthy democracy, and the fundamental value of good journalism, but also acknowledged Google’s actions are a matter of financial self-interest since it is a broker of information, connecting users with the internet content they’re searching for.

In light of that, he said, it’s important the search engine maintain a decent relationship with the journalists who produce credible, reliable information.

“We are inextricably linked. In a sense, we both have a common objective,” Gingras said. “Obviously, we think it is important for society that we have a healthy fourth estate, but if I look just at our business motivations, it’s absolutely true that the future and perceived value of Google Search to our users is dependent on there being a rich ecosystem of knowledge on the web.”

Gingras points out Google paid around US$13 billion to publishers last year for ads running through its advertising network, which appear on sites across the internet. He also said it’s not really the company’s fault that the classic journalism business model was wrecked by the internet.

Before the internet, the newspaper was the community go-to source for news as well as job listings, classified ads, recipes, comics and weather forecasts.

But when those things became fragmented online, advertising dollars went to websites catering to those specific niches.

“The truth is if there were no Google and were no Facebook, the same dynamic would have happened, simply because you went from a constrained marketplace of information to an immense one,” Gingras said.