Tech giant Google on Tuesday, 18 May, sealed agreements with 30 Indian publishers to offer access to some of their content on its platform – News Showcase.
It is an enhanced news app designed by Google, and it was launched in 2020. News Showcase helps participating publishers share “their expertise and editorial voice through an enhanced storytelling experience”.
This app provides access to featured content, where readers will have to pay to read 'paywalled’ content by news publishers. Several media reports suggest that Google has invested 1 billion dollars to support this initiative.
Google inked deals with some of the popular media houses, including HT Digital Streams Ltd, The Hindu Group, Indian Express Group, ABP LIVE, India TV, NDTV, Zee News, Amar Ujala, Deccan Herald, Punjab Kesari, The Telegraph India, IANS (Indo Asian News Service), and ANI.
The tech giant in a statement announced that it has also signed deals signed with 700 news publications in more than a dozen countries, including Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, the UK Australia, Czechia, Italy and Argentina, more than 90 percent of them representing local or community news – with discussions underway in several other countries.
Google also announced the Google News Initiative (GNI) programme, which promises to train 50,000 journalists and journalism students in strengthening their digital skills to aid reporting and combat misinformation online.
“From business point of view, we know life will become tougher for businesses in these challenging times. We want to collaborate with news publishers to help them engage with readers and make data-driven decisions to improve their business and reporting efforts," said Sanjay Gupta, vice president, Google India.