Google Provides Snapshot Of News Orgs Getting Emergency Relief Funds

The Google News Initiative has provided a snapshot of the news organizations receiving funding from its Journalism Emergency Relief Fund.

The tech company announced the fund in April to provide financial assistance to small- and medium-sized local news publishers worldwide.

More than 5,300 small- and medium-sized local newsrooms worldwide will receive funding, ranging from $5,000 - $30,000. 

That includes over 1,800 newsrooms in North America, 1,050 in Latin America, 1,550 in Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA) and 800 in Asia Pacific.

“As we await a final funding tally, we expect to spend tens of millions of dollars through the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund,” reads the announcement posted yesterday.

In two weeks, the Google News Initiative received more than 12,000 applications from 140 eligible countries, with 90% of those applications from newsrooms of less than 26 journalists. 

More than 300 Google employees reviewed the applications for a set of criteria: Publications have to operate locally, serve a specific geographic community and use the funds to continue doing so. 

“We still have a small percentage of projects to review,” the company noted.

In North America, a few of the news organizations receiving funding include The Daily Memphian in Memphis, Tennessee, which will continue to produce 20 to 30 daily stories focused on issues around COVID-19 and its impact on the poor and African American communities.

Chestnut Hill Local in Northwest Philadelphia will replace their “archaic website” with a new platform to publish online content more quickly and frequently. 

Madison365 in Madison, Wisconsin, focuses on communities of color in Wisconsin. It will use Google's funds for additional journalists, video content production and server capacity to provide rapid response coverage on issues impacting their readers across the state.

WTIP North Shore Community Radio in Grand Marais, Minnesota, helps broadcast information to emergency-response organizations. The funding will keep WTIP's news team employed and on the air, delivering live and local broadcasting throughout the crisis.

And in Canada, The Discourse Cowichan serves a rural region on Vancouver Island, B.C., including Cowichan Tribes, the largest First Nation in the region. 

It will increase reporting capacity to cover the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable communities.


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