US tech giant Google unveiled a USD 163 million project today with eight European publishers to support online journalism after being accused of anti-competitive behaviour by EU regulators.
The online firm's Digital News Initiative is intended to "promote high quality journalism through technology and innovation," a top Google executive announced in London.
The company will try to develop products aimed at increasing news traffic, invest in digital training and research in the industry, and fund innovation in digital journalism.
"Google has always wanted to be a friend and partner to the news industry," said Carlo D'Asaro Biondo, the firm's head of strategic partnerships in Europe.
"Over the years, our relationship with news and the news industry has often been misunderstood," he told media executives at the Financial Times Digital Media conference.
"We do want to play our part in the common fight to find more sustainable models for news."
News publishers have long complained that the Google News service takes traffic away from news media sites, and draws companies to pay for advertising in searches rather than in newspapers.
D'Asaro Biondo insisted: "Through search and news we send over 10 billion visits, for free, to publishers globally, each month."
Earlier this month, the European Union formally charged Google with abusing its search engine's dominance and launched a sensitive probe into its popular Android mobile phone operating system.
Google accounts for about 90 percent of the EU search market.
The Digital News Initiative brings together Les Echos in France, Germany's FAZ and Die Zeit, the Financial Times and The Guardian in Britain, NRC Media in The Netherlands, El Pais in Spain and La Stampa in Italy, as well as European media organisations.
Google will create a European publishers' working group to explore product development aimed at increasing revenue, traffic and audience engagement, D'Asaro Biondo said.
"Second, we will significantly increase our investments in training and research.
"Thirdly, we have allocated 150 million euros to stimulating and supporting innovation in digital journalism within the news industry.
"The purpose of this investment in innovation is to make grants available to projects which demonstrate new thinking in digital journalism... We want to stimulate and nurture ideas that come from those who are closest to the action.
