Google Launches Google News Showcase in India with 30 Publishers

On Tuesday, Google announced extending the Google News Showcase programme in India with 30 publishers. The tech giant has partnered with 30 news publishing, including national, regional, and local news organisations. Some of the partner content publishers are India TV, The Hindu Group, HT Digital Streams Ltd, Indian Express Group, ABP LIVE, NDTV, Zee News, The Hans India, Amar Ujala, Deccan Herald, Punjab Kesari, The Telegraph India, IANS and ANI.

Google's new programme builds on the ongoing News Showcase deals it has signed with 700 news publications in over a dozen countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, the UK, Italy, Japan, and Argentina. The tech giant says it is in talks with publishers in several other countries as well.

Now Google will show content from its partner publishers in dedicated News Showcase panels on Google News and Discover. It includes English and Hindi languages. The search engine giant plans to add more languages in the coming days.

Another important aspect of the partnership is that Google is paying participating news organisations to offer access to the readers to a limited amount of paywalled content.

Google said in a blog post, "This feature means readers will have the opportunity to read more of a publisher's articles than they would otherwise be able to while deepening readers' relationships with publishers and encouraging them to subscribe."

Apart from the launch of the News Showcase programme, Google said it is expanding its Google News Initiative efforts in India. As part of the expanded efforts, Google said it would train at least 50,000 journalists and journalism students. In addition, it will include programmes on using digital tools to detect misinformation online.

Google has also launched new programmes to assist small and mid-sized publications in financial sustainability as part of the GNI Digital Growth Programme.