Having driven the country's mandatory code legislation in the first place, News Corp has held out for a global deal covering Australia as well as the UK and US.

News Corp announced overnight (Wednesday/Thursday Australian time) that it has opted for a global agreement with Google in place of the national ones announced by Australian publishers, the most recent of which being a $30 million deal with Nine Entertainment.

It says Google will make "significant payments" for displaying its content across the world on its Google News Showcase in what chief executive Robert Thomson called "a historic multi-year partnership".

Publications covered include the Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the US, The Times and the Sun in the UK, and The Australian, Sky News, News' metro dailies and websites in Australia.

Talks between Google and Daily Mail Australia are reportedly still ongoing.

Google signed a valuable deal with Seven West Media at the end of last week, and is reported to be on the verge of deals with Nine - publisher of The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald - the ABC and Guardian Australia. JPMorgan has estimated the value of the Seven West Media deal at up to $69.2 million a year, no doubt contributing to increases in its share price on two consecutive days.

Google would now appear to be happy with a revised version of the code, to which 'technical' changes are reported to have been made. It is understood that both Google and Facebook will pay news publishers an annual lump sum, and requirements about notice on algorithms are to be simplified.

Google signed Antony Catalano's Australian Community Media earlier, together with a number of smaller publishers. Under News Showcase, Google is reported to be paying publications for 'curatorial expertise' although details of individual deals are shrouded behind confidentiality agreements. It is now reported to have deals with 450 publications globally, although an agreement in France has divided the industry.

The Australian mandatory code legislation is due to be debated in parliament this week, with support from Labor agreed, and smaller parties to follow.

In the UK, more than 120 publications have agreed to provide curated content for Google News Showcase. Majors committed include Reach - which publishes the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Sunday People, Daily Record and Daily Star, as well as leading regionals in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol - the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, the Evening Standard, the Financial Times and New Statesman. Regional or primarily regional publishers named include Archant, DC Thomson, Iliffe Media, Midland News Association - which publishes the Express & Star in Wolverhampton - Newsquest and JPI Media, as well as news agency Reuters.

Pictured: Some of Reach's better-known brands in the UK