Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has never enjoyed much popularity among publishers. One notable media outlet even dubbed it a piracy platform. However, the search engine company has begun a new collaborative initiative that it claims will facilitate high-quality journalism in Europe by leveraging technology and innovation.
Global Association
At Financial Times conclave in London, Carlo D’Asaro Biondo, Google’s head of strategic partnerships, presented the Digital News Initiative in association, with several prestigious publications consisting of the Financial Times and the Guardian and other.
The collaboration will be in 3 areas
Product development – A publisher’s working group will be assembled to look at product development targeted at boosting revenue, traffic as well as audience engagement.
Training and research investment – Google’s new “News Lab” team will try to bring in additional training resources to newsrooms. Google declared that its producing in association with the European Journalism Centre, the Global Editors Network, as well as the International News Media Association.
Google is allying with the Reuters Institute in Oxford to produce the most exhaustive depiction of how news consumption is evolving in the European continent.
There’s a fresh grants program targeted at academic institutions tailored to aid fund research in computational journalism.
According to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), it is planning to invest 150 million euros to facilitate innovation in digital journalism within the European news industry. The scope is pretty wide but will be applicable to any entity operating in the digital news realm within the continent.
Currently, there are around 65,000 publishers signed up to Google News. Google has a great degree of influence over the traffic to online news outlets.
Charges pressed against Google
Google has been charged with manipulating its search dominance to influence results negatively affecting competitors and consumers. The company needs to ramp up relations with the media if it wishes to enhance its reputation in Europe.
