In late 2020, an online news experience called Google News Showcase launched. This platform helps participating publishers share their expertise and editorial voice through an enhanced storytelling experience.
The platform is also a global content licensing programme. Google pays participating publishers to curate quality journalism for an improved online news experience that benefits readers and publishers.
Through this experience, publishers, including award-winning newsrooms, can give readers more insight on local, national and international news to help them understand the stories that matter. News organisations have direct control of their presentation and branding, which provides a way to form deeper relationships with their audiences.
Through Google News Showcase, participating publishers can uniquely package the stories that appear in Google’s news products, currently Google News and Discover. The platform also offers deeper storytelling and more context with features like timelines within stylised news panels, related articles and bullets.
This approach is different from other Google news products because it focuses on the editorial choices that publishers make about which stories to show readers and how to present them.
To help readers discover new content, Google News Showcase offers no-charge access to select paywalled articles on a participating publisher’s site that would otherwise only be available to subscribers.
This platform has launched in select countries/regions, with more to follow soon.