News Showcase content from our publisher partners will automatically start to appear in Google News and on Discover starting today. As part of our licensing deals, were also paying news organizations for access to select paywalled content, giving people in Austria access to a wide range of news content. We work closely with news outlets to determine the right amount of content to share to help drive subscriptions.
With the new storytelling formats, quality media can better disseminate journalistic content together with Google News Showcase, says Georg Burtscher, Managing Director of Russmedia, the leading regional publishing house in Vorarlberg. VN.at, Vol.at and Vienna.at are known for testing innovations in everyday life – that is also the case with this initiative.
“The importance of independent and high-quality journalism for society has become very apparent in the Coronavirus-crisis news gives people the information they need about their communities, people have faith in it, says Maximilian Dasch, Managing Director of Salzburger Nachrichten. Google News Showcase promotes digital news and provides more support for journalism.”
For many years, Google has invested millions of euros in Austrian journalism through innovation funding. With funding and support from the Digital News Initiative Innovation Fund, DER STANDARD built an AI solution to help combat online hate speech in comments, resulting in a 50% decrease in the time taken by moderators. We also supported a project from news agency APA to create login and paywall infrastructure to drive digital subscriptions. Plus, we worked with vol.at who brought together behavioral science and tech innovation to create a loyalty program, leading to a tenfold increase in registrations. And in 2020, with the spread of COVID-19, the Google News Initiative offered support to 10 Austrian newsrooms through the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund, providing them financial assistance to get them through the pandemic.
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Google News Showcase is launching in Austria
