$150,000 Up for Grabs as the Google News Initiative Innovation Challenge for Journalism Kicks Off in Africa

The Google-backed program Google News Initiative (GNI) has announced the opening of an innovation challenge for countries in Africa, the Middle East and Turkey.

This development was revealed at a GNI Innovation Summit held in Lagos. GNI, while hosting the media, publishers and other interested parties, expressed that the innovation challenge was a global effort to help journalism thrive in the digital age.

We’ve long collaborated with the news industry to drive traffic, increase audience engagement, and generate revenue, but there are legitimate questions about how high-quality journalism can be sustained in the digital age.  As part of that, we are proud to open applications for the GNI’s first Innovation Challenge in the Middle East, Africa & Turkey.

Ludovic Blecher, Head of Google News Initiative Innovation

Traditional publishers, news start-ups and associations that aim to build innovative digital media projects have a rare opportunity to pitch their ideas and project plans. Selected projects will be awarded $150,000 and funding for up to 70 percent of the total project cost.

Google’s mission to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible has been a tilting point in the evolution of the information age. In the last two years over 4000 journalists across Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa have been trained by Google. The benefit of this innovative challenge is aplenty as this will further boost the numbers of skilled and qualified journalists on the continent.

Interested parties can make project submissions from now until Monday, September 2 at 23:59 GMT.  More information on eligibility, rules, criteria, and funding is available on the GNI website. They are also accessible by email: [email protected]. Good luck pitching.