Supporting the news industry and next-generation journalists on YouTube
Aug 05, 2021 – [[read-time]] minute read
Over the past few years, we’ve seen more and more people turn to YouTube every day to get their news.
We want to connect our community to authoritative, trustworthy content, and believe we have a responsibility to support innovation and a sustainable ecosystem. That’s why we work alongside news organizations from around the world--both through our products that help news partners reach audiences and monetize their video content, as well as through grants and training programs as part of the Google News Initiative.
We’re committed to supporting the future of journalism, and that means continuing to create opportunities for the industry to harness the latest technology and techniques for growth on YouTube. In April, we opened applications for two new programs focused on supporting the next generation of reporters and newsrooms.
We’re excited to announce today the selection of nearly 50 independent journalists and over 40 digital-first newsrooms across the programs.
Our Creator Program for Independent Journalists aims to give the growing number of reporters publishing independently the tools needed to succeed on YouTube. And the Sustainability Lab for Digital-First Newsrooms provides support for digital native newsrooms to start and expand their video operations.
Altogether, the participants represent 25 countries, speak nearly 20 different languages, and report on a wide range of topics, spanning local news and national politics, to undertold stories about marginalized communities. You can read more about the selected participants for the Creator Program here and for the Sustainability Lab here.
Our goal is to work together with the industry and help journalists and newsrooms thrive on YouTube.
Over the course of the next year, we’ll offer journalists in the Creator Program training in industry best practices, including comprehensive sessions on video production and editing, audience development, entrepreneurship, and achieving financial sustainability on the platform. Participants will receive grants to help fuel their new video operations. They’ll also be connected with experts at YouTube to answer questions, and join groups of their peers to share insights and experiences. The digital newsrooms selected for our Sustainability Lab will receive grants, one-on-one support from YouTube, and have rich opportunities to learn from each other as they develop video news capabilities and business plans.
We also hope to learn from our first set of participants how we can further improve and iterate on these programs for future classes. Our goal is to work together with the industry and help journalists and newsrooms thrive on YouTube.
It remains an ongoing priority to build a more sustainable video news ecosystem as we continue to raise up authoritative content on our platform. There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’re eager to increase access to credible, trustworthy information from a diversity of sources to everyone who comes to YouTube to learn more about what’s happening in the world.