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Google rolls out News Showcase in India; to train 50,000 journalists, students
The India launch will build on News Showcase deals signed by Google with 700 news publications in more than a dozen countries, said the tech giant.
Google has launched its global product called News Showcase in India. It is a programme to pay news publishers for their content online. The tech giant has partnered with a number of publishers in India, including HT Digital Streams, one of the largest print publishers in India. It allows partnering publishers to curate content and provide limited access to paywalled stories for users.
“As an established media house, engaging with our audiences through quality content in convenient and innovative ways is a huge area of focus for us. We are pleased to partner with Showcase to build on the same and help us access new users,” said Paras Sharma, head of news partnerships, HT Digital Streams Ltd.
As part of the initiative, the content from publishers will begin to appear in dedicated News Showcase panels in Google News and on Discover pages in English and Hindi. Support for more local languages will be added in the future.
Google said the investment will help people "find quality journalism, contribute to the sustainability of news organizations, and expand its programs under the Google News initiative". The company highlighted the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic to drive home the point of needing authoritative news and information.
The India launch will build on News Showcase deals signed by Google with 700 news publications in more than a dozen countries, including Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, the UK Australia, Czechia, Italy and Argentina. The company further said that it is in talks with publishers in several other countries as well.
News publishers have long fought the world's most popular internet search engine for compensation for using their content, with European media groups leading the charge.
Google said in October last year that it planned to pay $1 billion to publishers globally for their news over the next three years via Showcase.
The company said that with Showcase, it is expanding the Google News initiative efforts in India. Google plans to train 50,000 journalists and journalism students over the next three years in a bid to strengthen digital skills in newsrooms. It has also introduced several new programs to help small and mid-sized publications achieve financial sustainability.
These new and expanded programs build on years of investment in India, said the tech giant starting from 2018 when it launched the Google News India training network.
