Most Google employees can expect to work from home through the end of the year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. GETTY IMAGES/AFP/File/Drew Angerer
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The gesture by Google to spend $39.5 million (about R680 million) in funding media houses around the world during Covid-19 would go a long way in assisting an economically crippled media, if conditions guaranteed editorial independence, according to an expert.
The grants would give recipients a chance to diversify revenue and apply new business models. Among conditions to be eligible for the grant were that:
Applicants should have a digital presence, having been in operation for at least 12 months.
Newsrooms had to employ between two and 100 full-time journalists.
Local publishers employing more than 100 journalists could still apply and would be considered subject to Google’s discretion, based mainly on differing needs in different countries and regions.
Organisations must be incorporated or registered in one of the eligible geographies. Unincorporated organisations should be based in one of the eligible geographies.
Eligible applicants should focus on core news provision, not lifestyle, sports or business-to-business.
Applicants could include for-profit or nonprofit traditional news organisations, digital natives, radio and television broadcasters.
Government-owned entities and individuals would not be eligible to apply. Selected applicants would be required to enrol as a Google partner (if they were not already).
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