Google to Host Wire Service Stories

I've mentioned before how I think Google wants to become a publisher. Now here's a story from IDG News Service saying that Google will directly display wire service stories on their own on the company's own news page, and not via a link to a site of a publisher or broadcaster. In trying to appease the wire services and reduce the law suits, Google has direct relationships with AP, AFP, the UK Press Association, and Canadian Press. (Can Reuters be far behind?)

Now, I've often run into wire stories via links to newspaper sites. Yahoo has not only been doing that for some time, but also directly presenting articles from Reuters and AFP with a combined branding. (I do wonder how long it will be until Yahoo also directly hosts some of the of the other wire services, particularly amid another round of rumors that it is up for sale.)

What I'm sure publishers are quaking about is how this will often cut them out of the loop. Why go to a newspaper's page to find it's running a wire story that you can get elsewhere - and in its entirety, not a cut-down version that the paper might decide to run? Every day Google looks more like a publisher of news, maps, photos, video, audio, books, published patents, blogs, and academic material.