Google News Showcase launches in India with 30 publishers

Abner Li | May 17 2021 - 10:53 pm PT

Last year, Google announced a $1 billion licensing program to support publishers and surface new card-based content across services. Google News Showcase is now coming to India.

The effort today has signed over 700 deals with news publications in Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, the UK, Argentina, Australia, Czechia, and Italy. In India, News Showcase is working with 30 national, regional, and local news organizations:

The Hindu Group, HT Digital Streams Ltd, Indian Express Group, ABP LIVE, India TV, NDTV, Zee News, Amar Ujala, Deccan Herald, Punjab Kesari, The Telegraph India, IANS (Indo Asian News Service), and ANI.

Swipeable News Showcase panels will appear in Google Discover and News starting in English and Hindi. Additional languages are coming this year and more will be incorporated “in the future.” The licensing agreements will see Google pay publishers so that some paywalled content is available for free in hopes of driving paid subscriptions.

This feature means readers will have the opportunity to read more of a publisher’s articles than they would otherwise be able to, while deepening readers’ relationships with publishers and encouraging them to subscribe.

Meanwhile, the Google News Initiative is working to “strengthen digital skills in newsrooms and journalism schools across India” over next three years. The News Lab will train 50,000 journalists and students on digital tools to help with combating misinformation and fact-checking.

Second, we are introducing several new programs to help small and mid-sized publications achieve financial sustainability – all part of the GNI Digital Growth Program, which has already trained executives at 100 Indian news organizations since launching last year.