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1 year agoon
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techeconomyTechEconomy.ng learned that the 108 news outlets are recipients of the first GNI Innovation Challenges in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, Turkey & Africa and North America representing 39 countries around the regions.
This funding, according to Recipients Manager, GNI Innovation Challenges, Sarah Hartley, in a blog post, will enable the partners to develop sustainable business models by diversifying revenue streams and/or increasing audience engagement.
The GNI Innovation Challenges, part of Google’s $300 million commitment to help journalism thrive in the digital age, saw news innovators step forward with new thinking. In South Africa, Daily Maverick proposed a “relevancy engine” that would aggregate data feeds about reader behavior for small and medium publishers.
In Jordan, podcast startup Sowt looked to tackle the challenge with a new hosting platform for news podcasts.
Hartley writes, “we launched the Middle East, Turkey and Africa Innovation Challenge last June, and received 527 applications from 35 countries. After a rigorous review, a round of interviews and a final jury selection process, we selected 21 projects from 13 countries to receive $1.93 million in funding. There are 7 projects from Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa respectively.
“The call for applications listed four criteria: impact, feasibility, innovation and inspiration, and the successful projects clearly demonstrated all four.
Here are just a few of the awardees (you can find the full list on our website):
“A second round of the Middle East, Turkey and Africa Innovation Challenge will open for applications later in the year: Watch for details on our website”.
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