Google News will allow free access to paywalled articles from news sites

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

As part of its $1 billion investment in partnerships with news publishers, Google will start paying for some paywalled content for its News Showcase program. News Showcase, a new addition to Google News that launched in October, displays story panels curated by publishers — but its not available in the US yet.

News Showcase will “start offering people access to paywalled content in partnership with select news publishers,” says a Google blog post. Google will pay partners for limited access to paywalled content. To access that content, users will still have to register with the individual publishers.

Users in the US shouldn’t get too excited about free articles just yet. Google lists partnerships with publishers in several countries, but...