At the beginning of last year, we brought Google News Showcase, our product experience and licensing programme for news publishers, to the U.K. It’s designed to help publishers engage more deeply with their readers – and to help readers find, follow and support the news organisations covering the issues that matter to them. We continue to learn, update and expand the product, and we’ve seen strong, steady numbers – both in terms of the number of publishers signing on for the product in the UK, and how readers are interacting with the content.
More publishers join News Showcase in the UK
We’ve negotiated and signed deals with almost 240 news titles in the U.K. since launching News Showcase. The most recent is The Guardian, building on our longstanding work together on digital innovation for the future of news.
Keith Underwood, CEO of The Guardian, commented: “We are pleased to have expanded our partnership with Google to make our journalism available in digital, video and other formats in ways that will engage even wider audiences. This new deal supports further investment in journalism and will bring a new audience back to our sites where we can build deeper relationships of enduring value.”
Local news publishers make up 93% of the titles who’ve signed up to News Showcase in the U.K. to curate news in new ways and deepen their engagement with online audiences. These include Grantham Journal, NationalWorld.com, Reach’s Belfast Live and Clear Sky’s North Devon Gazette.
As Mark Thompson, Editor of National World, says: “We believe it is vital that our stories, videos and images are given the value they deserve so that we can produce ever more insightful, reliable and relevant journalism for audiences all over the UK. News Showcase has enabled our teams based in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to display their impressive work on a great platform and in a meaningful way.”
Simon Bax, CEO of Clear Sky, also tells us: “Joining the Google News Showcase has had a dramatic and immediate effect as it has enabled us to hire an additional journalist, has elevated our standing within the community and has increased the team’s self-assurance.”
We recently announced that we’re making it easier to find local publishers in Google News Showcase by bringing their panels into the local section of Google News. Through our partnerships with local news publishers in the U.K., we’ve seen first-hand how local news is an essential way for readers to connect to their communities and ensure they get the news that impacts their day-to-day lives.
Supporting publishers and journalists in the UK
News Showcase is one element of our broader investment in news and journalism in the U.K. We spent more than $18 million on training, partnerships and programming with news organisations and other news industry partners between 2018 to 2020, and we’ve trained 16,500 journalists and journalism students since 2015.
We’re proud to fund the Journalism AI fellowship, organised by the media think-tank Polis at the London School of Economics, and to support organisations like Headlines Network who are providing essential mental health resources for journalists in England and Wales. We’re continuing our support for the University of Central Lancashire’s Journalism innovation and Leadership (JIL) Programme for a third year and recently announced the Innovation Challenge for Europe, where small and medium-sized news organisations can apply for funding to stimulate innovation in news.
We’re dedicated to continuing our contribution to and collaboration with the news ecosystem, supporting the open web and continuing to provide access to information in the UK and elsewhere.