Google Seeks To Help News Outlets’ Sustainability
July 7, 2020Google plans on getting further involved in the development and sustainability of small and medium sized news outlets. The company says that it understands the challenges that have arisen due to the turmoil caused by the COVID-19 crisis. Many Publishers are facing financial difficulties as their revenue streams continue to dry up.
That is why the Search giant is introducing the Digital Growth Program from the Google News Initiative (GNI). This is a free training program aimed to help small-to-medium news publishers. It will be available in Europe first, but will eventually roll out to other regions in the coming months.
Photo Credit: Google
GNI’s objective it to help news outlets that have recently shifted to digital platforms. The Google team sits with these publishers to hear how they can help expand and improve their readership online. The feedback from these meetings have enabled it to introduce workshops for the fundamentals of digital business strategy, audience engagement and revenue strategy.
In Europe, Google has partnered with FT Strategies and Table Stakes Europe from WAN-IFRA to provide lab sessions that cover a variety of topics over the course of several weeks and months. Such subjects include change management, subscriptions and audience growth. These sessions are offered free-of-charge but spaces are limited and available upon application.
As of now, GNI is available in six countries: Spain, the UK, Germany, Italy, Poland and France, and conducted in their respective local languages. Publishers can sign up to a workshop or apply for a lab at the GNI Digital Growth Program page.
