Google announced today that it intends to give away $5 million dollars to organizations trying to find innovative ways to continue the practice of Journalism.
Great. Anything that even vaguely creates more jobs for writers is okay in my book, especially when I look at my tally of how many times you guys say I should be fired.
Unfairly blamed for the decline of media by Rupert Murdoch and his ilk, perhaps the higher ups at Google feel bad about their status as scapegoat for the Internet’s detrimental effect on the news industry and that’s why they’re feeling so generous?
Google will be giving away $2 million to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with $1 million going to the Knight News Challenge and $1 million going towards continuation of U.S. Journalism grant making, whatever that means.
The remaining $3 million will be spent internationally.
From Google:
“Journalism is fundamental to a functioning democracy. So as media organizations globally continue to broaden their presence online, we’re eager to play our part on the technology side—experimenting with new ways of presenting news online; providing tools like Google Maps and YouTube Direct to make websites more engaging for readers; and investing heavily in our digital platforms to enable publishers to generate more revenue.”
… And getting a $5 million dollar tax write-off. In any case, the media industry shouldn’t look a gift search engine in the mouth; With newspaper circulation dropping 5% since last year, any sort of cashflow is more than welcome, even if it is charity.
Image: Failblog