An Innovation Challenge to Sustain Diverse Media
Most communities in North America are diverse. They are comprised of people of various ethnicities, income levels, and countries of origin. In a lot of cases these diverse audiences are not effectively represented in the pages of their local news publication or remain untapped as an opportunity to increase engagement and grow the business for a news organization. That's why it's increasingly important for publishers to understand the diverse communities they serve. We hope this is where the Google Innovation Challenge can help. Last year, the GNI North American Innovation Challenge focused on generating revenue and increasing audience engagement for local journalism. 34 projects in 17 states and provinces received $5.8 million to help with projects ranging from a way for local news providers to access and monetize audio clips, to testing a new approach to local news discovery, engagement and membership. This year the spotlight will shift toward helping publishe