Last fall Google floated the notion of Newspass, a publishing system that would enable e-commerce and also permit content to be searchable even when inside a paywall. It brought the idea to a gathering of publishers at a Newspaper Association of America meeting.

Now details are starting to emerge on the proposal, which appears headed to market by the end of the year.

The Italian newspaper, La Republicca, delved into the idea today. Google so far is simply saying it doesn't comment on prospective products, but its comments to paidContent.UK didn't dampen the report's contents, either.

Essentially Newspass will permit publishers to create a payment system, either through micropayments or direct credit-card purchases, through its Checkout system.

Google's CEO Eric Schmidt has repeatedly expressed concern about the news business' economic model in the digital sphere. While Google drives traffic to sites, and also benefits from search of those sites with its adjacent advertising, it sees a higher purpose in technological support of the news business --- the content is essential to Google's well-being.

As newsrooms look for digital revenue opportunities, some are experimenting with e-commerce functions in editorial content.

The Chicago Tribune has been doing so for several months now and the sister newsroom of The Los Angeles Times announced today it is doing the same.

It will green-hyperlink certain stories and blogs to such vendors as Amazon and TicketNetwork, based on daily discussions about pending opportunities within the report.

It will limit the e-commerce links to health, food, entertainment, travel, books and sports stories and blogs. At this stage that leaves the initiative clear of news and business stories and blogs and columnist material.

It won't replace blue editorial links with green e-commerce ones and it'll place a disclaimer at the bottom of such content to alert users to the fact these are third-party offerings.