Google has announced an initiative designed to improve the quality of journalism and the business models of its publishers.
Called the Google News Initiative, it's a worldwide effort in which Google partners with news publications to help highlight the most accurate information possible.
Aimed especially during breaking-news situations, the initiative is how Google expresses its commitment to help publishers generate a sustainable source of revenue, and at the same time, suppressing fake news.
Here, the company spends $300 million over the next three years to meet its goals, said Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler in a blog post.
The program comes as Google starts heading to a different directions from news business perspective. While Alphabet, Google's parent company, is generating huge revenue from ads, news organizations that use its advertising platform have struggled under intense competition.
"The future of journalism depends on all of us working together," said Google on its News Initiative website.
Google is facing an increasing scrutiny over the stories it highlights in searches, particularly during crisis.
"We need to do more," said Schindler. "The GNI signifies a major milestone in Google's 15-year commitment to the news industry, and will bring together everything we do in collaboration with the industry — across products, partnerships, and programs — to help build a stronger future for news."
And with the initiative, Google is also launching the Disinfo Lab with First Draft to fight misinformation during elections, as the news is breaking. The company also partners with the Poynter Institute, Stanford University and the Local Media Association to launch MediaWise, designed to improve digital literacy.
In addition, there is also Subscribe with Google, a tool which streamlines the sign-up and subscription process for premium news sources, News Consumer Insights, a dashboard running Google Analytics designed to help news organizations better target readers for subscription, and Outline, a tool for journalists to set up a secure virtual private network (VPN) connection to the internet.