This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "" subscribers hours before appearing on Business Insider. To be the first to know, please .
ADVERTISEMENT
Google throws publishers a bone with News Initiative (GOOGL)
This week, Google launched News Initiative, a global effort in which the company will commit $300 million over the next three years toward strengthening quality journalism, developing sustainable business models, and boosting tech innovation for news publishers
This week, Google launched News Initiative, a global effort in which the company will commit $300 million over the next three years toward strengthening quality journalism, developing sustainable business models, and boosting tech innovation for news publishers, according to a Googleblog post.
Imagined as a bid to help news organizations adapt to the digital age, the effort will bring products for publishers under one umbrella. Google already offers a similar news initiative for publishers in Europe. This latest one will expand those efforts worldwide.
The initiative will aim to address two key pursuits:
ADVERTISEMENT
- Google will help publishers to better monetize their services by driving subscriptions.
- Bloomberg
- Google will also help to combat the proliferation of fake news online.
- First Draft
- Shorenstein Center
- statement
Like Google, Facebook has also launched initiatives aimed at elevating quality journalism. For example, Facebook has offered the Facebook Journalism Project, and last week Facebook said it would launch a designated news section in its Watch video hub for specific partners. At a time when 67% of US adults say they get news from social media, according to recent Pew research, these moves are especially crucial for digital platforms as 73% of voters also said they think "Facebook should hold itself to the same standard as other media companies to only publish accurate stories," per a similar poll by the Factual Democracy Project.
However, the relationship between platforms and publishers remains largely imbalanced. Despite absorbing the majority of digital advertising dollars, Facebook and Google together represented less than 5% of the total average digital revenue for publishers in 2017, according to recent research by Digital Content Next. Recode's Peter Kafka argues that Google and Facebook are "built to eviscerate publishers."
The tech platforms don't support publishers in the digital age so much as they compete with them. On the basis that publishers' fundamental currency is attention, Google and Facebook have done this far better than any publisher. Likewise, even multi-million-dollar journalism initiatives are barely a spending blip for the tech giants, given what either makes in digital ad revenues per quarter, much less per year — or three.
JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!
ADVERTISEMENT
Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:
Email: eyewitness@pulse.ng
ADVERTISEMENT