Google: Promotion initiative with European media
On Tuesday, the U.S. internet giant Google and eight European newspapers launched an initiative to promote quality journalism using modern technologies.
The so-called Digital News Initiative (DNI) will be supported with 150 million euros in the coming years, according to Google. The alliance pursues three main objectives: Product development, innovation promotion and research promotion. The digital news initiative includes Die Zeit and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from Germany, the British newspapers Financial Times and The Guardian and the French financial newspaper Les Echos. La Stampa from Italy, El País from Spain and the Dutch media group NRC Media are also involved. Other media could join in the course of time. Institutions such as the European Journalism Center and the International News Media Association are also involved. Google wants to use the initiative to promote the use of online media and not least its search engine. The group and media companies want to work together to find out how new products can increase sales and strengthen audience loyalty. "Anyone working on innovations in the field of online news" can apply.
Model France
The pioneer for the new initiative is a fund financed by Google in France, which was set up at the beginning of 2013. Google set up a 60 million euro fund for digital innovation in the press, to which French online media projects can apply for funding. The project is set to run until at least the end of the year. This partnership was concluded after a lengthy dispute with the publishers. The French publishers had previously demanded a levy for search engines, which would be payable when Internet users access an article published online via Google search results, for example. Google had then threatened in a letter to the French government to no longer list French media in its hit lists if such a levy was introduced. (SDA)
