Google offers Middle East news gatherers thousands to innovate

The Google News Initiative is aimed at changing the way conventional news is told, but funds are not available for specific content and projects must last no longer than a year.

Ludovic Blecher, Head of Google News Initiative Innovation said news organizations were no longer solely focused on being the first to break stories, now, he said, there was a greater demand for making the content more appealing through the use of technology.

“Smaller news organizations have to use a lot of time and resources to tell the repetitive aspects of a story, such as data,” he explained.

“What if they were able to automate these aspects of the reporting so that the journalists could be freed up research and write the more in depth content? We are not looking to replace journalists, but to free them up so they can do their job.”

A similar scheme was launched in Europe three years ago when 662 projects across 30 countries were shortlisted from an original 5,500 applications.

Applications for the MENA region project open in June and must be submitted by July. The judges will then create a shortlist and those will be interviewed.

The successful applicants will be awarded funds of up to $150,000 to be paid towards 70 percent of the overall cost of the project.

For more information visit Google News Initiative homepage at g.co/newsinnovation.