A top executive from Google’s news division has reportedly resigned from his post – a departure that comes amid a period of rising tensions with publishers who have accused the search giant of hoarding critical advertising revenue.
Shailesh Prakash had served as vice president and general manager for Google News. A source confirmed that he is no longer with the company.
The Wall Street Journal first reported his resignation, citing people familiar with the matter.
The circumstances behind Prakash’s resignation were not immediately clear. Google declined to comment.
Prakash’s work experience gave him a unique insight into the news industry’s problems with Google. He joined Google in November. 2022 after an 11-year stint at the Washington Post, where he served as chief product and technology officer, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He was credited with guiding the paper’s shift to digital content during that period, including creating an in-house ad technology business, the Journal said.
Prakash reportedly worked closely with billionaire Jeff Bezos after the Amazon founder bought the Washington Post for $500 million in 2013. The outgoing Google executive previously held roles at Sears and Microsoft.
Google has faced intense scrutiny in recent months over its business practices and the alleged harm they have caused to news publishers, who rely on the search giant for site traffic that supports ad sales.
The Big Tech giant ranked online publishers last May after it introduced a feature called “AI Summary” — which places an automatically generated summary at the top of its search results while burying links to other sites.
The News Media Alliance, a nonprofit that represents more than 2,200 publishers, including The Post, said the feature would be “catastrophic for our traffic” and has called on the feds to intervene.
Critics allege that Google used publishers’ copyrighted content to “train” its AI tools without proper credit or attribution. Google is also accused of shirking legislative efforts aimed at making tech firms pay their fair share.
Last month, The Post exclusively reported on emails that revealed how Google used its access to the Office of the US Trade Representative as it sought to undermine overseas regulations — including Canada’s Online News Act, which required for Google to pay for the right to display news content.
The Justice Department has a major antitrust case targeting Google’s digital advertising business. The feds allege that Google has abused a bottleneck in digital marketplace technology to take away revenue from publishers and advertisers alike.
In September, a former executive from The Post’s parent News Corp testified that the publishing giant considered leaving Google’s ad products in 2017, but backed out after estimating it would cost the company at least $9 million in lost income.
Closing arguments in the DOJ’s digital advertising case against Google are scheduled to take place in November. 25, with a final decision expected early next year.
Separately, a federal judge ruled in August that Google operates an illegal monopoly over Internet search. Judge Amit Mehta is expected to rule on possible remedies by next summer.
While outlining potential solutions to break Google’s monopoly, the DOJ warned that the rise of AI was an “emerging obstacle to competition and risks further strengthening Google’s dominance” if steps are not taken to address it.
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Image Source : nypost.com