Google News ends manual customization of publisher pages
How Google plans to streamline publisher presence with automated systems and unified visual elements across news surfaces.
Following a major update announced in April 2024, Google News will complete its transition to automatically generated publication pages in March 2025, according to a February 10 announcement from Google. The change marks a significant shift in how publisher content appears across Google News surfaces.
The transition eliminates manually created publication pages in favor of an automated system. According to the announcement, publication pages previously created by publishers through the Publisher Center will no longer be visible to Google News users. The Publisher Center will discontinue customization features for publication pages, and the Google News tile will be removed from the interface.
Luís Rijo
The modification extends to visual branding elements. Publishers will no longer manually customize how their logos and publication titles appear in Google News. Instead, the system will automatically use site favicons for publisher logos and site names for publication titles, creating a unified visual system across Google's news surfaces.
For favicons to appear in search results, publishers must follow specific technical requirements. According to Google's documentation, favicons must be square with a minimum size of 8x8 pixels, though larger sizes of at least 48x48 pixels are recommended for optimal display across different surfaces. The favicon URL must remain stable, and Google maintains strict policies against inappropriate imagery.
Similarly, site names in search results are now generated through an automated system that considers various factors. According to Google's technical documentation, the system evaluates content from a site's home page and web references to determine the most representative name. Publishers can indicate their preferred site name through WebSite structured data on their home page, though Google's automated system makes the final selection.
The ranking of content within Google News remains unchanged. According to Google's Publisher Center documentation, the system continues to evaluate content based on multiple factors including relevance, prominence, authoritativeness, freshness, location, and language. The company emphasizes that participation in advertising programs like AdSense has no impact on content ranking in Google News or other Google search engines.
For publishers using Google News Showcase and Reader Revenue Manager, logo submission through Publisher Center will continue as before. However, custom sections previously created in Publisher Center will no longer appear on publisher Google News landing pages, as part of Google's effort to streamline the publisher workflow.
The change maintains existing content eligibility criteria for Google News and other news surfaces. Content from publishers that complies with Google's content policies remains automatically eligible for consideration across news surfaces, including Top Stories and the News tab in Search results.
Google frames these changes as improvements to the publisher workflow and user experience. The automated system aims to provide what Google describes as "a clearer, more straightforward experience" for users while reducing the steps required in the publisher workflow.
The transition comes as part of broader changes to Google's news products. Publishers seeking to maintain their presence across Google News surfaces must now focus on technical implementation rather than manual customization, with particular attention to structured data, favicons, and site name optimization.
This technical shift highlights Google's increasing reliance on automated systems for content organization and presentation. While reducing publisher control over their presentation in Google News, the change establishes a more standardized approach to how news content appears across Google's various surfaces.