Google News Showcase is launching in Mexico, with nearly 80 media outlets joining from all over the country.
On the 10th anniversary of Google’s presence in Colombia, we’re investing in the future of news in the country with the launch of Google News Showcase, our new product experience and licensing program for news. Colombia is now the third country in Latin America, alongside Argentina and Brazil, to provide News Showcase for readers.
Nearly 1,000 news publications globally have signed deals for News Showcase since last year. These span more than a dozen countries, including India, Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Australia, Czechia, Japan, the U.K, Austria and Argentina, with discussions underway in a number of other countries. Over 90% of the publications signed up around the world represent local, regional or community news.
When Google came to Colombia a decade ago, the tech industry was facing an important moment of evolution in the country. Internet access and mobile penetration were increasing exponentially, marking a tipping point for Colombians. We’ve been a part of that growth ever since by partnering with the news industry, the government, industry associations, advertisers and users. With News Showcase launching in Colombia today, we’re looking forward to continuing to collaborate with the news industry over the next 10 years and more.
News Showcase is backed by our recent $1 billion global investment in news. The primary goal of News Showcase is to support news publishers that are invested in comprehensive current events journalism in the public interest by giving them a new way to curate their high-quality content on Google’s News and Discover platforms. Through News Showcase, these publishers can help connect their readers with the news that matters to them. As part of our licensing deals with publishers, we're also launching the ability for readers to access select paywall content. This feature will give people the opportunity to read more of a publisher’s content than they would otherwise have access to, while enabling publishers to incentivize more readers to become subscribers.
Today’s News Showcase announcement includes 24 regional and national news publications well known to the people of Colombia: BLU Radio, Caracol Radio,El Colombiano, El Diario,, El Espectador, El Heraldo, El Nuevo Día, El Nuevo Siglo, El País, El Pilón, El Universal, Hoy Diario del Magdalena, La Crónica del Quindío, La Opinión, La Patria, Noticias Caracol, Publimetro, Q'Hubo Bogotá, Q’Hubo Bucaramanga, QHubo Cali, QHubo Medellín, Semana, Vanguardia and W Radio. Over the coming months we plan to add more publications.
News Showcase panels display an enhanced view of an article or articles, giving participating publishers in Colombia more ways to bring important news to readers and explain it in their own voice, along with more direct control of presentation and their branding. Readers who click on a News Showcase panel are directed to the full articles on the publisher’s website. This drives valuable traffic to news organizations and enables them to grow their businesses and their audience while deepening relationships with readers.
Starting today, News Showcase panels from our participating publishers in Colombia will automatically start to appear in Google News and on Discover. Readers will see panels from publishers they follow in their personalized feeds, and they might also find panels from publishers they’re less familiar with presented as suggestions in the Google News “For You” feed and inside “Newsstand,” the discovery area of Google News.
News Showcase is part of a broader set of Google’s efforts to help the news industry in Colombia thrive and builds on the work we have been doing with the Google News Initiative (GNI) through training, scholarships and funding. Some examples include digital skills training with publishers like El Tiempo, and a program with AMI, an association that represents Colombian news organizations, to promote responsible, objective and independent journalism. We've provided support for Colombian news organizations to accelerate the growth of their businesses online through the Digital Growth Program, as well as Labs like the 2020 LATAM Contributions Lab that included 5 Colombian publishers.
We all know the importance of trustworthy journalism in helping us make informed decisions that affect our lives, work and family. That’s why we have collaborated closely with a number of fact check organizations in Colombia. For example, since 2019, we’ve provided support for workshops and training on fact checking tools with RedCheq, a network of fact checkers. And we’ve worked on initiatives to promote the use of digital tools to combat misinformation, such as Verificracks.
Additionally we’ve partnered with journalism organizations such as Fundación Gabo to support innovation in newsrooms and their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Covid-19 hit all sectors of society hard, including newsrooms. We responded by funding 83 small and medium local newsrooms across Colombia in 2020 through our Journalism Emergency Relief Fund. And in the last year alone we have trained +1800 journalists with our News Lab programs.
Over the coming months we’ll continue to work with our news partners in Colombia to incorporate their feedback as we build new features for News Showcase and include more publishers in the program for the future.
Enabling a robust and healthy landscape for news should be a shared responsibility across industries, governments and private and public interest groups. News Showcase along with our other News products and GNI programs are a clear demonstration of Google’s commitment to support quality journalism for the people of Colombia for the next decade and beyond.
Just last week we announced that Google News Showcase, our new product experience and licensing program for news, had launched in Australia. Today we’re announcing that News Showcase is rolling out with local, national and independent publishers in Argentina. As part of our licensing deals with publishers, we're also launching the ability for readers to access select paywall content. This feature will give people the opportunity to read more of a publisher’s content than they would otherwise have access to, while enabling publishers to incent readers to become a subscriber.
So far, we’ve signed on 40 news publications to Google News Showcase, including Clarin, La Nación, Perfil, Crónica, Cronista, El Economista, Diario Río Negro, El Día, La Gaceta and El Litoral. These news organizations represent the two largest newspapers in the country and some of the top independent, local and regional news organizations. We’re continuing to work with additional publications to sign them on for News Showcase,
"We are satisfied to continue building a mature and productive relationship with Google in Argentina,” says Héctor Aranda, CEO of Clarín andclarin.com, the largest media organization in the country. “As the owner of several of the most visited journalistic sites in the country, Grupo Clarín contributes an important value to the ecosystem and the consumption of digital content in Argentina. The possibility that this value is recognized by a relevant platform like Google is an auspicious step."
Globally, there are more than 450 publications in Google News Showcase in over a dozen countries including Australia, Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, U.K. and Argentina.
Google has generated important benefits for the journalism industry in Argentina. For more than 10 years, we have been working collaboratively with the media industry and with journalists in the country, supporting innovation through online trainings which have reached more than 40,000 journalists, students and entrepreneurs, partnerships and programs to improve sustainability and monetization, awards to recognize best practices in the industry and initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion in newsrooms, among many other projects. Last year, we funded 233 small and medium local newsrooms across Argentina through our Journalism Emergency Relief Fund.
An example of how News Showcase story panels will look with some of our publishing partners in Argentina.
"Google products are an important source of traffic for La Nación and we are confident that News Showcase will allow us to display some of our articles in an even more attractive way for Google News users,” says Francisco Seghezzo, CEO of La Nación, one of the largest newspapers in Argentina. “It is an exciting new step forward to building an even stronger bond between La Nación and Google that will favor our audiences."
With News Showcase panels, editors at news organizations can help explain complicated news topics and bring context to readers looking to understand more. News Showcase panels display an enhanced view of an article or articles, giving participating publishers more ways to bring important news to readers and explain it in their own voice, along with more direct control of presentation and branding.
News Showcase content and panels from our publisher partners will automatically start to appear in Google News and Discover, and direct readers to the full article on the publisher’s site. People will see panels from publishers they follow in their personalized feeds and they might also see panels from publishers they’re less familiar with, presented as suggestions in the Google News “For You” feed and inside “Newsstand”, the discovery area of Google News. Panels are already appearing in Google News on Android, iOS, and the mobile web, and in Discover on iOS, and will start appearing in other versions of these products soon.
An example of different New Showcase panel layouts from our publishing partners in Argentina.
“News Showcase is based on a substantial value: the delivery of traffic to the media sites themselves in Argentina,” says Nahuel Caputto, president of Adira, the Regional Newspapers Association that represents 60 news outlets in the country. “This is a central difference from the rest of the platforms, which retain audiences in their own ecosystems. Additionally, editors will select the content to be displayed, giving them an additional way to highlight their most important stories.”
We’ll continue to work with our news partners in Argentina to incorporate their feedback as we build out new, innovative features for News Showcase. Alongside governments, other companies and civic society, we’re dedicated to continuing to find ways to engage readers around the quality news that matters to them and supporting the sustainability of the news industry both in Argentina and around the world.
