Trinity Mirror receives six-figure sum from Google's Digital News Initiative
Trinity Mirror has received a six-figure sum from Google’s Digital News Initiative (DNI) to help fund its news aggregator app, Perspecs.
The undisclosed sum will support Trinity Mirror’s new app, which aims to present readers with different angles to news stories, during the production period.
Darren Sher, head of product at Trinity Mirror, said: “The funding and recognition from Google is a huge boost for Perspecs. It opens up a number of opportunities to help us build our audience and further develop the infrastructure and reach of the app.
“Currently the app is in beta, so the funding also enables us to focus on building a more stable, scalable and feature rich product. The DNI is about supporting innovative digital journalism which sparks new thinking, so we’re really pleased to be recognised in that bracket.”
The funding is part of Google’s £119m European Digital News Initiative which launched in October last year and is intended to support innovative journalism.
It has been viewed by some within the industry as an olive branch to publishers who have widely accused the internet search giant of acting unfairly by distorting search results to promote its own products and services.
The DNI also backed projects by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Blasting News for Europe which is a platform for social journalism founded by Italian journalist Andrea Manfredi.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s was awarded £520,000 to help fund its project to analyse large databases for original stories at local and regional levels. The project plans to set up a network of journalists to explore how coding and computing technology can produce original and hard-hitting stories.