Google News Initiative Taps Stringr To Provide COVID-19 Content


The Google News Initiative is working with video content marketplace Stringr to supply COVID-19 content to publishers as part of its program.

The Google News Initiative has invested $400,000 in the project to date. More than 100 content packages will be developed and made available between now and the end of May.

This isn't the first time Google News Initiative and Stringr have worked together. They announced a partnership back in November to provide national and local news outlets with broadcast, digital and raw video content from Stringr’s network of freelance videographers.

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"Because we have a worldwide network of video talent, we're able to offer a worldwide view of the pandemic — helping local broadcasters everywhere tell stories that they don't necessarily have the resources to execute on their own," stated Lindsay Stewart, cofounder of Stringr.

The COVID-19 packages are free to use by Google News Initiative member outlets. All News-Press Gazette and Lee Enterprises publications are currently using the coverage, for example.

The packages are made available in formats for digital use (backing tracked, subtitles), broadcast (narrated) and untracked (for newsrooms looking to use their own voiceovers). 

The topics are varied, such as how the pandemic could end, the impact of COVID-19 on farm and restaurant industries and the economic impact of flattening the curve. The stories featuring interviews with experts.

“We have publishers large and small all over the globe receiving the Stringr-Google coronavirus packages enabling local publishers to tell the stories that are hardest to tell right now — the same stories that are bringing us together, while being physically apart,” stated Rebekah Dopp, who is leading the GNI-Stringr partnership. Dopp is the founder of Exponent, the global gender equality incubator at Google.

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