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The Digital News Initiative is an European organisation established by Google to support high quality journalism across the continent. It encompasses an Innovation Fund worth €150m and grants to 461 projects in six participating countries next year. This was launched by Google’s parent company, Google Ireland. This initiative is open to all European Union members. It also welcomes organisations from outside the European Union.

The Digital News Initiative has been welcomed by the European Commission as a new means of delivering news to users across the EU. A press release from the Commission states that the new system will help increase the diversity of information available on the internet. It will enable reporting by non-journalists who are independent of their employers, have expertise in fields beyond traditional reporting and have a professional background outside of the computer industry. Reporting by non-journalists has a huge advantage for breaking stories across the EU. In addition, the digital news initiative will encourage increased participation by citizens and provide a significant boost for online innovation.

The first recipients of the funding are French multimedia organisation, La Croisette and German public television stations, ZDF and ARD. It is hoped that this will prompt other broadcasters to launch digital news journalism initiatives in Europe. It will be very important to watch how this will happen because it may well set a precedent for other European publishers. The UK already runs one of the world’s largest innovation fund, known as the Innovate UK.

The aim of the digital news initiative is two-fold. It aims to create a better platform for the global working class by providing a platform that can be accessed across multiple devices and continents. It also hopes to increase the diversity of ideas that are being presented and shared across national boundaries. It is hoped that this will help to raise the bar for European journalism and give rise to new international digital newsrooms. When combined with the work of the developing countries, this could lead to an increased focus on the developing world.

This initial round of financing is provided by the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK. Other participants will include the Nordic countries, BAN, International Reporting Bureau, Institute of Journalism, European Journalism Organisation and EMA. There are still several topics that are open for discussion, such as citizen journalism and increasing diversity of platforms. These goals have been highlighted by the European commission. Other innovations may be on the way in the form of platform creation, digital news content and analytics tools.

For the time being, there is a lot of enthusiasm in the business interests of newspapers, magazines and broadcasting organizations towards the creation of a platform for online publishing. This is likely to be accompanied by a significant increase in the commercialization of online journalism in the coming years. Digital news, content and technology are seen to complement each other and become a major force in delivering quality information across borders.

The Commission has also highlighted some specific objectives. One of them is for the integration of the open source platform developed by the journalists, editors and publishers of this news site. It is also important to see the progress made in terms of creating new platforms by new players and increasing participation from third parties. Another important objective is to support the development of independent and non-profit journalism. In a broader perspective, this can be seen as supporting the values of a free press which is essential for the democratic societies in Europe.

The European Journalism Agency (EHA), which is the leading organization within the Journalism sector in Europe, welcomes the current developments of the Digital News Initiative. Managing the resources and looking after the development of new platforms for publishing news online, the EHA looks forward to the success of the European Journalism initiative. It will play an important role in ensuring that the advancement of the global quality of journalism is enhanced. It also provides a great platform for developing the skills and experience of new players in the European Publishing Industry.