Google awards €21m to 98 media projects in Europe as part of its Digital News Innovation Fund

Google’s Digital News Innovation (DNI) Fund awarded €21 million to 98 media projects in 28 European countries after assessing its fifth round of applications, the DNI team announced today (24 July).

Google has now awarded some €115 million to European projects as part of its commitment to support media innovation with a €150 million fund.

In this round, which focused on monetisation and building more diverse revenue streams, the DNI team received 820 applications.

The key themes emerging from the projects point towards a focus on voice devices, personalisation, dynamic pricing and the use of machine learning, Ludovic Blecher, head of the DNI Fund, wrote in the announcement.

Some €1.5 million were awarded to projects from the UK.

The PinkNews Advocacy Platform received €299,338 to build a solution for readers who want to connect to charities and other change-makers, enabling them to choose actions they want to take to become better informed about a particular issue and support a cause.

SenseMaker, a collaboration between UCLan’s Media Innovation Studio and Engineering Innovation Centre, publisher Reach and the Manchester Evening News, was awarded €48,000 to explore how sensors could provide data for journalism.

Together with partners from engineering and media, including Journalism.co.uk, the project will design journalism sensor kits that can reveal local issues or provide further data to enable journalists to better report on their communities.

“We're excited about connecting people, data and stories. By including a range of industry and community groups in our process, we hope to create compelling and relevant editorial content via unique sensing devices,” John Mills, lecturer and researcher at the Media Innovation Studio and project lead, said in a press release.

Elsewhere, Italian publisher Il Sole 24 ORE was awarded €739,000 to explore an AI-first take on personalisation, in collaboration with Teorema Engineering.

French magazine Play Bac Presse received €49,332 for Virtual Newsroom, a media literacy project that will build a journalistic guide to enable teachers to train children on how the journalism industry works.

You can explore all the projects on the DNI website. Applications for one further round of the DNI Fund will open later this year.

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