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Published: 25 Feb 2021 838 views
Google is proud to launch the GNI’s second Innovation Challenge in the Middle East, Africa & Turkey Region.
As part of our continuous effort to support the news industry around the world, we are launching our second Google News Initiative Innovation Challenge in Africa, the Middle East and Turkey. It’s an open call for projects that increase reader engagement and explore new business models to build a stronger future for journalism.
Last year, we selected 21 projects from 13 countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Turkey, and the UAE. In South Africa, online news publisher Daily Maverick developed a “relevancy engine” for small and medium publishers to help them better understand reader insights and increase relevancy and increase subscriptions. Ringier Africa Digital Publishing in Nigeria was awarded funding to increase personalisation across its platform using a blend of prediction, recommendation and local information pages to increase user engagement. Kenyan awardee Africa Uncensored is aggregating news from members of the public to produce at scale. You can find out more about all of last year’s recipients in this Keyword post.
Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. It is considered one of the Big Four technology companies, alongside Amazon, Apple, and Facebook. Google was founded in September 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University in California. The company's rapid growth since incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond Google's core se... continue reading
| Application Deadline | 12 Apr 2021 |
| Type | Contest |
| Sponsor | |
| Gender | Men and Women |
he selected projects will be eligible to receive up to $150,000, not to exceed 70% of the total project cost. We will not be funding any editorial-only projects, but instead are focusing on projects aimed at increasing reader engagement and exploring new business models.
Established publishers, online-only players, news startups, publisher consortia and local industry associations are all eligible to apply.
Selection Criteria:
Projects will be evaluated against five criteria: impact on the news ecosystem, innovation, diversity, equity and inclusion; inspiration; and feasibility.
Applications, in English only, must be made online via our website and are open until Monday, April 12 at 23:59 GMT. We will also be holding an online town hall on March 3 at 13.00 GMT with a live presentation and the opportunity to ask questions. (Please note that Google does not take any equity or IP in any projects or submissions.)
We are looking forward to seeing new ideas, projects and big bets come out of the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, a region rich with talent, potential and opportunity. For more information about the challenge, visit g.co/newsinnovation.
For more details, visit Google website.