Google launches Showcase, to train 50,000 journalists in digital skills

Google on Tuesday announced several initiatives for Indian news industry under its Google News Initiative (GNI), including the launch of Google News Showcase, a programme to train 50,000 journalists in digital skills, and training 800 small and mid sized news organisations grow their digital ad revenue.

The Google New Showcase, launched late last year, and currently active in several other countries, will show content from Indian publisher partners in English and Hindi in dedicated News Showcase panels in Google News and on Discover.

Showcase will have add support for more Indian languages in the future. As part of the licensing agreements with publishers, Google will also pay participating news organizations to give readers access to a limited amount of paywalled content.

From today, Google News Showcase will roll out in India with 30 news publishers including national, regional and local news organizations like The Hindu Group, HT Digital Streams Ltd, Indian Express Group, ABP LIVE, India TV, NDTV, Zee News, Amar Ujala, Deccan Herald, Punjab Kesari, The Telegraph India, IANS (Indo Asian News Service), ANI, and others.

“The Indian news industry and journalists are embracing technology to engage with readers and make data-driven decisions to improve their business and reporting efforts. We believe it’s important that digital platforms contribute to a sustainable, independent and diverse news ecosystem, working with journalists, news outlets and news associations,” said Sanjay Gupta, Vice President, Google India.

He added that News Showcase was just one part of our overall commitment to the large and diverse Indian news ecosystem. “Today, we’re also announcing the expansion of our Google News Initiative efforts to bolster journalist training efforts, and new programs to support over 800 small and mid-sized publications achieve financial sustainability with trainings in audience development and product innovation to support business success for news organizations,” he said.

Further, Google said it will expand its work to strengthen digital skills in newsrooms and journalism schools across India, with increased support from its Google News Lab to train 50,000 journalists and journalism students to aid reporting and combat misinformation online.

Google News Lab is a team within GNI which works with journalists and entrepreneurs to drive innovation in news.

With the GNI Digital Growth Program, Google will offer new business training workshops in audience development and product innovation, to help news organizations address the needs of their audiences, grow their readership and deepen reader engagement.

These workshops will be available for free to Indian publishers, alongside existing workshops it has for news organisations.

Google will also invest in product training sessions and implementation support to help more than 800 small and mid-sized Indian news organizations grow their digital ad revenue with the GNI advertising Lab, and will launch The GNI Transformation Lab, a more comprehensive program for 20 local small and mid-sized Indian news organizations to help them transform every aspect of their business to succeed online.