Google vows to ‘spark new thinking’ with $170m Digital News Initiative | M&M Global

Google vows to ‘spark new thinking’ with $170m Digital News Initiative

Google has announced details of its €150m ($170m) fund to build bridges with Europe’s embattled news media industry, with over 120 organisations signing up to take part.

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The three-year ‘Digital News Initiative’ will see European publishers large and small able to apply for funding for projects demonstrate “new thinking in the practice of digital journalism”.

Publishers can apply for funding for early stage ‘Prototype’ projects, requiring up to €50k, ‘Medium’ projects of up to €300k, and ‘Large’ projects requiring funding of up to €1m. In the case of the latter two categories, Google will only fund up to 70% of the total cost of the project.

A council chaired by Joao Palmeiro, president of the Portuguese publishers association, will evaluate the applications.

Other council members include Murdoch MacLennan, CEO of Telegraph Media Group, Katharina Borchert, managing director, online, at Der Spiegel, and Jawbone founder Alexander Asseily.

Google will run two application rounds per year, with the first round starting today and finishing on 4 December. The next will begin in spring 2016.

Ludovic Blecher, head of the DNI Innovation Fund at Google, writes in a blog post: “The ambition and intent of the Fund is bold: to spark new thinking, which could come from anywhere in the news ecosystem, to give news organisations – of all sizes – the space to try some new things.

“Projects can be highly experimental, but must have well-defined goals and have a significant digital component.

“There is no requirement to use any Google products. Successful projects will show innovation and have a positive impact on the production of original digital journalism and on the future sustainability of the news business.”

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