FILE - This Tuesday, July 19, 2016, file photo shows the Google logo at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google said Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, it is ending its so-called "first click free," a policy loathed by many publishers and media because it required a limited amount of free content from them before readers could be subjected to a paywall. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
FILE - This Tuesday, July 19, 2016, file photo shows the Google logo at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google said Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, it is ending its so-called "first click free," a policy loathed by many publishers and media because it required a limited amount of free content from them before readers could be subjected to a paywall. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) Credit: Marcio Jose Sanchez

New York — Google is ending a decade-old policy that required publishers to provide some free stories to Google users — though it’s not clear how many readers will even notice, at least for the moment.

Publishers had been required to provide at least three free stories a day under the search engine’s previous policy, called “first click free.” Now they have the power to choose how many free articles they want to offer readers via Google before charging a fee, Richard Gingras, vice president of news at Google Inc., wrote on Monday in a company blog post .

The goal is to help publishers build up digital subscriptions, an imperative for many media outlets that pay large sums for news production but are starved for advertising revenue.

Google’s previous approach had let readers skirt paywall policies by typing a headline into Google and getting access to a story without having it count against a monthly free article limit, said Kinsey Wilson, an adviser to New York Times Co. CEO Mark Thompson.

Many online readers may not notice a change overnight unless they visit a particular site several times a month without subscribing.