Google has struck a deal with Australia’s Murdoch family-owned media conglomerate, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and other newspapers—another sign that the tech giant may be willing to negotiate deals with Australian news publishers to avoid being subject to the government’s tough new laws requiring them to pay for news content and links, lawyers say.

Earlier this week, publisher Seven West Media and Google also struck a deal in which the internet giant agreed to pay the Australian television and newspaper company for the news snippets it displays. Lawyers and the government said at the time they expect it would be the first of several similar agreements.