Deadline: 22 July 2019
As a part of the Google News Initiative’s $300M commitment to help journalism thrive in the digital age, Google has launched GNI Innovation Challenge in Latin America to support projects that focus on new business models and new news products.
The GNI will fund projects from around the world that meet specified criteria, with the intention of producing learning and thought leadership for the wider industry.
Funding Information
Google will award up to $250,000 for selected projects. The Jury can choose to increase the project cap for some large collaborative efforts with significant ecosystem impact. Google will finance up to 70% of the overall costs of the selected projects.
Eligibility Criteria
The Latin America GNI Innovation Challenge is open to organizations of every size – digital natives, startups, NGOs, industry organizations, broadcasters, traditional news organizations, freelancers, and sole traders – whose projects focus on encouraging a more sustainable news ecosystem. Organizations must be incorporated or based in one of the eligible countries in the Latin America region as outlined below.
Eligible Regions
Organizations must be incorporated in one of the eligible countries (listed below) within the Latin America region.
Eligible geographies are (in alphabetical order):
- Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Eligible Projects
The first GNI Innovation Challenge in Latin America will focus on projects that help build a more sustainable ecosystem for digital news in Latin America through the development of new business models and new news products. All innovative ideas are welcome and projects can be experimental but must have well-defined goals and measurable impact. There’s no requirement to use Google products for the project. They encourage applicants to clearly demonstrate the value of the project by providing actionable key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs should further the news organizations’ digital news objectives (i.e., digital subscription growth, online daily active users, digital ad revenue, etc.). Special consideration will be given to collaborative projects involving multiple news organizations. Successful projects will also need to be delivered within one year.
Projects will be evaluated against four main criteria:
- Impactful: Preferred projects will demonstrate the potential for significant impact on a problem relevant to the broader news ecosystem.
- Innovative: Projects should advance new innovative approaches to creating, distributing, and monetizing digital journalism.
- Feasible: Preferred projects will have a detailed business plan when relevant, clearly outline key performance indicators or metrics, and identify key risks and how to mitigate them.
- Inspirational: Can other news organization learn from or replicate the project? Is the news organization willing to share knowledge across the news ecosystem?
How to Apply
Interested applicants can apply online via the given website.
For more information, please visit https://newsinitiative.withgoogle.com/innovation-challenges/how-to-apply/latam/