Google has removed the feature to add publications manually to the Google Publisher Center. Instead, publications will be automatically added when Google's algorithms decide to.
Google wrote yesterday, "Starting today, publishers can no longer add publications to the Publisher Center." Google added that they are "making this change as part of a transition to roll out automatically created publication pages later this year."
In short, you are no longer able to add publications manually in the Google Publisher Center in this screen:
Google explained that the old way allowed publishers to manually create a source page for users to follow on Google News and other surfaces.
Google said, "Publishers with manually created publication pages will continue to have access to customization features until later this year, when pages will shift to being automatically created. Users will continue to be able to follow their favorite publications."
This means that you may see your publication disappear from the Google Publisher Center later this year.
In terms of how this impacts Google News, it won't. Google wrote:
Content from publishers that adheres to our content policies is automatically eligible for consideration in Google News and across News surfaces.Having a publication in the Publisher Center does not guarantee its content will appear across Google surfaces. Our systems automatically identify and rank eligible content based on factors like relevance, prominence, authoritativeness, freshness, location, and language. Learn more about ranking within Google News.
This may be seen as a huge letdown since Google said it would look to improve the news publisher acceptance process earlier this year. Removing features here will just seem to confuse more publishers in an already confusing environment. As a reminder, this all started when Google stopped with manual Google News inclusion for a black-boxed automated Google News inclusion process in 2019.
Forum discussion at X.
Update: Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, replied on X about this. He wrote:
To clarify (some people get this, I know -- but others get confused)....Content is automatically considered for Google News and news surfaces, as has been the case since Dec. 2019. That hasn't changed.
Publisher Center offered a way to create source pages manually, which did not somehow get content overall considered for Google News and news surfaces.
Some who made these pages would get confused and think source page = content in Google News and news surfacs. We've tried to clarify this more over the years, such as with this blog post (I've screenshotted the key part).
Despite that, some still get confused because ... yeah, it's confusing! So part of this change is eliminating that confusion. Sites small and big are still automatically considered, as the update says (also screenshot attached).
Also, anticipating those who say we should do more to include more news sites -- moving to automatic consideration has helped, versus the past where someone would actually have to know to apply. That said, yes, there's always more we can do -- it's something I push on (and I'm not alone) especially in cases where sites are not having their content appear at all in news queries but are referenced by other who do. I'd really like to see us improve with this.
To clarify (some people get this, I know -- but others get confused)....
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) April 26, 2024
Content is automatically considered for Google News and news surfaces, as has been the case since Dec. 2019. That hasn't changed.
Publisher Center offered a way to create source pages manually, which did… pic.twitter.com/yKcNjMc8Hf
