Applications are open for the Google News Initiative Innovation Challenge. As part of this program, the Google News Initiative (GNI) will fund a set of projects from around the world that meet specified criteria, with the intent of producing learning and thought leadership to share with the wider industry.

Moreover, They are proud to launch the GNI’s first Innovation Challenge in the Middle East, Africa & Turkey Region. The Challenge will focus on reader engagement and new business models in any form. Further, special discretion on the total project cap may be considered by the Jury depending on the scale and impact of a very large collaborative effort.

Benefit

• Google will fund selected projects up to USD $150,000 and will finance up to 70% of the total project cost.

Eligibility

• open to organizations of every size, including freelancers and sole traders. Further, that aim to produce innovative, original journalism and to enlighten citizens with trustworthy journalistic content, whose projects focus on encouraging a more sustainable news ecosystem.
• Established publishers, online-only players, news startups, publisher consortia, and also, local industry associations are all eligible to apply. Incorporated organizations must be incorporated into one of the eligible countries (see below) in the Middle East, Africa & Turkey region.

Eligible Projects

All ideas are welcome but they are requiring all projects to have clear indicators showing the impact of the project from a user perspective and/or from a business perspective (eg: audience indicators, business plan when relevant). Successful projects will also need to deliver within one year.

They encourage innovative projects – focused on but not limited to- the areas below:

• Business Models
• Distribution
• Interface
• Social
• Workflow

Evaluation Criteria

• Impact on the news ecosystem: Projects should demonstrate the potential for significant positive impact on the creation of new revenue streams. Also,  change the way people consume digital news.
• Innovation: Preferred projects will be innovative (use of technology, business model, new reader engagement approaches, etc) and be transformative for the applicant and for users.
• Feasibility: Projects should demonstrate clear indicators and metrics, or even a business plan when relevant, and set out key risks and mitigation steps.
• Inspiration: How can the project help news organizations learn from each other? Willingness to share knowledge, open source code or/and to contribute to the improvement of the ecosystem overall.