KITCHENER, Ont. and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — In a posting Wednesday on Google Canada’s blog, Google’s vice-president of news, Richard Gingras, announced the company is launching a global journalism emergency relief fund to support local news organizations.
“Local news is a vital resource for keeping people and communities connected in the best of times. Today, it plays an even greater function in reporting on local lockdowns or shelter at home orders, school and park closures, and data about how Covid-19 is affecting daily life,” Gingras writes.
With the news industry dealing with job cuts, furloughs and cutbacks due to the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 crisis, the Google News Initiative is launching the emergency relief fund to provide aid to news publishers around the world, Gingras says.
“The funding is open to news organizations producing original news for local communities during this time of crisis, and will range from the low thousands of dollars for small hyper-local newsrooms to low tens of thousands for larger newsrooms, with variations per region,” he explains.
Starting today, publishers can apply for funds via an online application form. Applications will close on Wednesday, April 29, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Funding amounts will range from the “low thousands for small hyper-local newsrooms to low tens of thousands for larger newsrooms, with variations per region,” reads the application.
Gingras says Google will announce in the coming weeks who has received funding and how publishers will spend the money.
