Google's New Digital News Initiative
The digital news initiative is an European organisation established by Google to support high-quality independent journalism and innovation across the continent. It encompasses an "innovation fund" worth up to 15 million euros, that in 2018 issued several grants to 461 different projects across 14 countries. In addition to the "innovation fund", it also issues licenses for web journalists to use specific software and to submit stories online. Google's "New Journalism" initiative therefore is not entirely devoted to the growth of online media, but also to the development of digital news. However, the company has made clear its commitment to news in general, including the need to support more diverse forms of independent journalism. agency to expand the reach of news is perhaps most notable in the digital news segment: Google will be publishing its own news content and has confirmed it will be making all its current news products freely available to users.
The first step in this direction was the acquisition of the news blog Marketwatch, a great asset on several levels. Firstly, Marketwatch is one of the best places for consumers to find out about the hottest topics. Consumers like getting breaking news on the go, with the ability to download it straight onto their smartphones. They are also incredibly well-designed, and Google is certain that users will find them very attractive and easy to use: they have excellent widgets and great functionality. These assets will be added to the new digital news initiative and will help news businesses develop their digital future.
Secondly, the acquisition of Marketwatch was only the beginning. Google has also invested in another important business: the news blog called Google News. News will be delivered through the Google news platform, and this will build on the success of the Google news app. News will be distributed throughout Google News, and this will be further integrated into the Google Now initiative. It is expected that Google News will become an integral part of Google's strategy for distributing news stories across its different platforms and will provide a truly comprehensive online news service. This is one of the biggest developments in the news that we have seen in some time, and it shows that Google is really serious about becoming a leader in the news.
Thirdly, agency will be published across a number of different verticals across the internet. It is rumoured that Google will announce at their annual I/O event that Google news will also be coming to the iGoogle platform - which already has a very strong news content platform built in. The iGoogle platform will allow web publishers to publish content directly from their own websites, rather than requiring the involvement of a third party content publisher. This is a very important step forward in terms of diversifying the way in which news content is distributed online and will provide a major boost to online news content publishing on mobile devices. Google's purchase of Marketwatch will also provide a further opportunity for digital news content publishers to monetize their news content, with the acquisition making it much easier for sites to monetise their news content and to benefit from increased traffic.
As well as all this, the Digital news initiative will also introduce two other verticals. These are news and sports. Both of these are very successful verticals on Google. In fact, both of them have been very successful for Google, especially in Europe and the UK. Sports is one of the most popular verticals, and news content is highly recommended for this particular reason. The sports vertical will provide great value for Google through its wide range of advertisers and sponsors, and Google is clearly focusing on offering its advertisers and sponsors the best possible opportunity to reach their audience.
The other vertical will come via Search, where Google will remain a major force. Search results will always feature a range of digital verticals that are sponsored by a range of different companies. The major change with this latest initiative is that it will be much less competitive for Google to promote its own vertical and therefore it is likely that there will be more news and information being shared between these verticals. This makes it more likely that the same information will spread and grow across the internet, rather than being concentrated on just one company or advertising campaign.
The purpose of the digital news initiative is to extend the reach of news content online. It wants to provide the opportunity for readers to gain information from sources they are likely to trust and find it relevant to their own lives. It aims to create a better consumer experience and more engagement with news content. As well as this, Google wants to expand its influence over the internet and generate its own unique brand content through the power of the search engine. There is no doubt that the aim of this latest addition to its portfolio of news products is to maximise the potential of digital news in advancing the overall goal of increasing the reach of the internet.
There are obviously many ways in which Google can take this digital news initiative forward. The impact of its moves on content and search will certainly be profound, but it has to face the fact that it cannot rely solely on its own strength to succeed. It has to work with other media companies too. The formation of the new news division is therefore a clear sign that Google is serious about becoming more involved in delivering news to users. If other companies and organisations want to benefit from this kind of initiative, they need to make sure that they have a good system in place to ensure that their news products get the kind of distribution that they need.