Google and News Corp partner to provide training to local and regional news professionals
Google and News Corp today launched an initiative to provide digital skills training and new opportunities for young journalists.
The Digital News Academy will provide training to 750 local and regional news professionals from a range of outlets across the country, including Australian Community Media and several others.
The program, run over three years, will provide tuition in skills including digital journalism, video and audio production, data journalism, audience measurement, reader revenue, digital business models and marketing.
In addition to supporting digital capabilities, the Digital News Academy will also create opportunities for young journalists, funding 60 new 12-month journalism traineeships in regional Australia over the next 3 years.
News Corp Australasia’s executive chairman, Michael Miller said the academy would provide “essential skills” at a crucial time for news media professionals.
“The future of commercial news organisations rests on their ability to create and publish journalism that serves audiences in tangible, valuable ways and is consumed how and where those audiences choose,” Miller said.
“This task is the foundation mission as news organisations large and small develop business models built on high value journalism. I thank Google for working with News Corp Australia in establishing the academy and it’s further acknowledgment of journalism’s value and importance.”
In February, News Corp announced that it had agreed to a multi-year partnership with Google to provide content from its news sites around the world in return for significant payments by Google.
Among the News Corp publications joining Google News Showcase will be The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, and the New York Post; in the UK: The Times and The Sunday Times, and The Sun; and in Australia a range of news platforms, including The Australian, News.com.au, Sky News, and multiple metropolitan and local titles.
The three-year agreement also includes the development of a subscription platform, the sharing of ad revenue via Google’s ad technology services, the cultivation of audio journalism and meaningful investments in video journalism by YouTube.
News Corp’s chief executive Robert Thomson, did not disclose at the time how much the three year licensing deal is worth (no publisher has), but said it would have “a positive impact on journalism around the globe as we have firmly established that there should be a premium for premium journalism”.
“I would like to thank Sundar Pichai [Google’s CEO] and his team at Google, who have shown a thoughtful commitment to journalism that will resonate in every country,” he continued.
“This has been a passionate cause for our company for well over a decade and I am gratified that the terms of trade are changing, not just for News Corp, but for every publisher.
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