Google News has launched a new innovation challenge to help scribes and publishers in the Asia-Pacific region produce quality journalism in the digital age.
The Asia-Pacific Google News Initiative Innovation Challenge will fund selected projects up to $300,000 and finance up to 70 percent of the total project cost, that inject new ideas into the news industry.
“We are inviting proposals for projects aimed at increasing revenue from readers, including subscriptions, membership programmes, contributions or new digital products and services,” Google News said in a statement.
According to Google, in Asia-Pacific, journalists and publishers are increasingly grappling with questions over how quality journalism can thrive in the digital age. The move comes at a time when according to media reports, Google may shut down its Google News service in the European Union if a proposed “link tax” for using news stories comes into force in member countries.