Digital News Innovation Fund Impact Report Contents

Introduction 03

Report by numbers 04

Boosting Digital Revenues 08

Telling Local Stories 16

Battling Misinformation 19

Exploring New Technologies 21

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 2 Introduction

The only real, substantive guarantee It has laid the groundwork for the implementation of the independence of news media – of new business models and structures along the entire value chain – from content workflow which is critical for the well-being of processing, to digital distribution, to go-to- pluralist democracies – is their own market strategy for new news products and economic success, not government monetisation. Concepts such as user-generated subsidies or gifts from wealthy donors: content, audience development, real-time you never know when either one analytics, robot journalism and propensity-to- might run out. buy modelling have become part of everyday work in most media organisations. The DNI The offline news business, first print, then Fund was also able to stimulate networks the news wires, radio, then TV, had been a among publishers and tech companies. century-long success story. But over the past 20 years, many traditional news media have News will remain a tough business, but in suffered significant revenue and profit declines. Europe we are now well on our way to building Employment has become less plentiful, and business models which will be sustainable, sometimes precarious. hopefully facilitating the transformation of many revered legacy organisations – and also help a As a result, media companies are changing number of startups to develop their niches. how they do things. Which media company had research & development (R&D) units at the Thus, the DNI Fund has been time, effort, and beginning of this millennium, working on the $150 million well directed. It was an honour next big innovation? Which media companies for me to be part of, and then chair, the DNI had the skill sets in their organisations to Fund Council, which evaluated all of the larger manage rapid technological change and develop projects proposed. products and services fit for the evolving I would like to thank my colleagues on the consumer behaviour? The answer is too few. DNI Fund Council, the amazing project team In 2015, Google’s Digital News Innovation Fund and all others who made this journey possible (DNI Fund) was one of the initiatives which set and were part of it. out to help change that. The direct result of the And to the media companies of Europe: we need DNI Fund’s work is the realisation of numerous you to be successful. Godspeed. innovative projects – some of which you will read about in this report.

But in my view, the biggest achievement of the DNI Fund goes beyond individual projects. Veit Valentin Dengler Its biggest achievement is to have helped to COO, Bauer Media Group kick-start the overdue development of an R&D Chairman of the DNI Fund Council culture in the European news ecosystem. Hamburg, October 2020

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 3 Report by numbers

DNI Fund

€150M fund

662 projects

30 countries

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 4 Report by numbers

Funding across Europe

KEY PROJECTS FUNDING

AUSTRIA FINLAND LITHUANIA SLOVAKIA 17 20 6 6 €3M €2.9M €910K €1.5M

BELGIUM FRANCE LUXEMBOURG SLOVENIA 18 75 2 7 €5.3M €20.1M €770K €843K

BULGARIA GERMANY MALTA SPAIN 6 93 1 47 €503K €21.5M €150K €12.1M

CROATIA GREECE NETHERLANDS SWEDEN 3 11 32 15 €850K €2.3M €5.5M €2.8M

CYPRUS HUNGARY NORWAY SWITZERLAND 1 18 21 15 €450K €2.6M €3.8M €3.4M

CZECHIA IRELAND POLAND UNITED KINGDOM 12 10 33 78 €1.5M €1.9M €6.6M €14.9M

DENMARK ITALY PORTUGAL 15 45 32 €2.5M €11.5M €7.8M 6% of the DNI Fund ESTONIA LATVIA ROMANIA went to knowledge 2 5 16 sharing, reporting €441K €250K €1.8M and overheads

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 5 Report by numbers

Organisation types A breakdown of projects supported by organisational type

27.2% Regional & National Publishers

14.5% News Startups

14.2% News Agencies & Nonprofits

11.0% Local Publishers

10.4% Online Pure Players

6.5% Individuals & Sole Traders

4.8% Trade Associations

3.0% Academic Institutions

1.8% TV

1.8% Radio

1.7% B2B Publishers

1.7% Magazines

1.4% Publisher Collectives

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 6 Report by numbers

Funding topics The DNI Fund has supported projects tackling four key industry challenges

12% Boosting Digital Revenues 15% Telling Local Stories

21% Battling Misinformation

52% Exploring New Technologies

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 7 Case studies Boosting Digital Revenues

LoVer | Spain | €896K Funding | Local Publisher Single login for Spanish local news network

Henneo has developed LoVer, Inspired by other DNI-funded experiences, a single sign-on (SSO) system, to the Spanish publisher Henneo built a coalition be the foundation for a paywall and called LoVer (Local and Vertical) to generate a single login for the Spanish press. programmatic advertising for a network of Spanish local publishers. For users, this means high-quality, personalised content across a wider network The problem to solve sounded simple: how to of publishers. For publishers, the data collected allow small and medium publishers to challenge improves programmatic advertising and larger organisations in the competitive digital monetisation. It allows publishers to connect, environment. The solution was collaboration. share tools and campaigns, and learn from each other. In the future, LoVer will serve as the basis for paywall payments. Project Highlights “We know that cookies used to identify the registered user will disappear soon and we need to create 500K users an environment in which as many people as possible will be signed in, so we can still of the Spanish segment our users,” says Miguel Madrid, 91% market reached Chief Digital Officer at Henneo. He predicts the company will diversify ways to monetise websites, 14 Spanish publishers the aggregate data from LoVer. “We will also 60 now participating soon be selling new products, such as video streaming and native advertising.”

The funds helped us to grow to 500,000 registered users and reach over 91% of the Spanish market. Miguel Madrid, Henneo Chief Digital Officer

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 8 Case studies Boosting Digital Revenues

Go Beyond Subscription | France | €400K Funding | National Publisher Smarter paywall optimises subscriber conversion

Go Beyond Subscription, an initiative “We wanted to expand our subscribers, and by French newspaper Le Monde, drives reward their loyalty,” says Julien Laroche- and retains digital subscriptions. Its Joubert, Chief Digital Officer at Le Monde, three-tier system includes individual explaining the system’s development, “but also create opportunities to adapt the pricing of the logins and shared accounts. offer depending on the user’s needs.” Observing that subscribers often share logins led Le Monde to develop a smarter paywall system Project Highlights to prompt users registering simultaneous logins to upgrade to a shared account. of subscribers use couple 6.8% or group options As with many publishers, the company saw an increase in subscribers prompted by people subscriber growth looking for verifiable pandemic information 40% year-on-year from a trusted source, but that’s not the full story behind the improved metrics. The digital new subscribers in the subscribers increased from a 25%+ forecasted 14K paywall launch month gain to a 40% year-over-year gain due to both the new offers and the pandemic situation, to reach 335,000 in June 2020.

“Creating those offers within a subscription management system was quite complex, but DNI funding allowed us to accelerate this project,” says Laroche-Joubert. The system has already proved a success – 6.8% of subscribers are now using couple or group plans, with the figure still trending upwards.

The project helped to expand our subscribers, and reward their loyalty. Julien Laroche-Joubert, Le Monde Chief Digital Officer

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 9 Case studies Boosting Digital Revenues

NZZ Companion App | Switzerland | €670K Funding | National Publisher Giving people news the way they want it

NZZ Companion App, from Switzerland’s news they want, when they want it, morning, noon oldest newspaper Neue Zürcher or night, especially during these unstable times.” Zeitung, is a digital companion that Launched in spring 2017, the NZZ personalises through‑the-day news Companion App has built both trust and delivery, creating tailored news loyalty. The centrepiece is personalised based on each user’s profile, location reading recommendations, generated through and situation. feedback (online surveys, one-to-one meetings and idea platforms) from a beta community. Head of Technology at NZZ Andreas Bossecker Getting those high-quality recommendations explains, “Personalisation is at the core of what we allowed the company to incorporate do. Readers want to know they are receiving the personalisation across digital products. Delivering a mobile-first approach also led to organisational changes in the teams. Project Highlights Since the app launch, NZZ has seen a 20% increase in its subscriber base – a total of increase in subscriber base 195,000. “It’s more than we expected, and really for NZZ since launch 20% confirmed our mobile-first focus,” says Bossecker. Beyond NZZ, he says, “a number of publisher of total traffic partners use our technology stack, including on mobile 65% a bigger regional newspaper in Switzerland.”

more visits from logged- The software is also distributed to other 125% in traffic than in 2018 publishers and retailers looking to increase website engagement.

Readers want to know they are receiving the news they want, when they want it, especially during these unstable times. Andreas Bossecker, NZZ Head of Technology

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 10 Case studies Boosting Digital Revenues

Noteworthy | Ireland | €380K Funding | Online Pure Player Crowdfunding people’s investigations

Noteworthy sees the public suggest Journal Media CEO Adrian Acosta – how to stories, and fund the cost of finance stories that aren’t sustainable with an investigating them to deliver stories advertising model, but impact people’s lives. that communities care about. Since The answer is Noteworthy, a crowdfunding site receiving DNI funding in 2018, the team for news stories. Investigations are suggested has completed over 25 investigations. by the public via questionnaires. The team’s proposals include costs, backers pledge funds, “Advertisers can have the best of intentions, and when the story is funded, it gets the green but they won’t want their ads next to an light. Costs range from several hundred to investigation into, for example, hospital a few thousand euros, depending on research malpractice.” That was the dilemma facing time, legal advice, production and project management. The project tackles everything from under-regulation in care homes to for-profit Project Highlights DNA collection. For example, 27 people donated €2,425 to investigate slot-machine gambling, public proposals selected while 48 people donated €1,440 to investigate 100 for potential investigations a story on sexual abuse survivors.

completed funded Managing Editor Susan Daly explains, “It’s a 25 investigations large-scale listening exercise that allows the audience control over the news agenda and motivates them to contribute to seeing that journalism delivered.” Noteworthy distributes the stories via social media, its website and newsletters to supporters and contributors.

The value of Noteworthy lies in how closely it engages with the public on the issues that are important to them but absent from mainstream news coverage. Susan Daly, Journal Media Managing Editor

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 11 Case studies Boosting Digital Revenues

News Agency Tracking Tool | Netherlands | €400K Funding | News Agency News agency creates insights tool

The News Agency content tracking In an age of demonstrable return on investment tool from Dutch press agency ANP (ROI), press agencies must prove the value of tracks the usage of hundreds of their stories. ANP has provided content to news thousands of text stories and images publishers since 1934, but in today’s digital environment, there was previously no easy way every month. The results help to prove to track the articles across multiple news sites. the financial value of the service – and give journalists real-time insights With DNI funding, ANP created a bespoke tool into how their work is performing. to crawl customers’ websites and match agency content with publisher content in almost-real time. Now live, the tool can trace agency Project Highlights content with near-real time reporting that shows how ANP content is being used, with 200,000 text articles processed per month. “In a media images, 200K articles market with declining revenues, all commercial tracked monthly 300K press agencies have to prove their relevance when they negotiate a contract,” explains CTO national press agencies Mark Westerhoff. “Our editorial team was using the tracking tool 9 sceptical, but with cultural change, we must decide if we need to report on a specific topic. publisher websites Or if we should, for instance, produce more tracked per month 100K content in the morning. This tool allows our editors to make more data-informed decisions.”

Many journalists believe they know what our customers want; this tool allows our editors to make more data-informed decisions. Mark Westerhoff, ANP CTO

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 12 Case studies Boosting Digital Revenues

CrowdNewsroom | Germany | €500K Funding | Nonprofit The citizen-led newsroom

The CrowdNewsroom project from with no single public data source – instead, German non-profit news site CORRECTIV many individuals hold pieces of the jigsaw. engages citizens to participate in Those pieces flow into the newsroom in a investigative reports, creating a variety of formats, and from a multitude community of over 18,000 contributors. of sources. The challenge is to avoid “data flooding”. To curb this data chaos, the team Through crowdsourcing its online audience, created a “platform that collects a structured CORRECTIV set out to discover verifiable facts on data set, with proofs on every single data point. local topics where public information is absent; If someone contributes data, they have to verify for example, the traffic situation across Germany it,” explains Founder David Schraven. – potholes, roadworks, etc. It’s vital information The software has already been central to more than 16 complex investigations – including Project Highlights providing key data to a newspaper report on housing inequality in Hamburg – and is available for purchase as an off-the-shelf product. contributors 18K CrowdNewsroom has raised more than €500,000 in investment through supporters contributors on a single and partners, and has ambitious plans to investigation 3.5K scale up the software’s availability worldwide. “We have founded an initiative with the Global partnered projects Investigative Journalism Network to support with news media 28 citizen journalism with tactical tech. We want to make it available across the globe.”

We have founded an initiative with the Global Investigative Journalism Network, DigLab and Tactical Tech to support citizen journalism. We want to make it available across the globe. David Schraven, CrowdNewsroom Founder

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 13 Case studies Boosting Digital Revenues

Personalisation Project | France | €400K Funding | National Publisher Personalising the sports reader’s experience

For France’s specialist online sports Romain Lhote, L’Équipe’s Head of Data, ran data publisher L’Équipe, audience insight analysis on a site with 2.8 million users a day from data analytics has increased page and 1.5 billion page impressions, monthly. “We views by 20% and boosted revenues. used machine learning to define a scoring system for articles from zero to 100, which we used to L’Équipe secured DNI support for a project to understand user behaviour better.” This scoring drive audience engagement through data-driven system helped sharpen the content strategy in analysis, revealing stories readers want. terms of coverage, space and formats, and refine a personalised subscriber experience.

It led to a 30-fold increase in push notification Project Highlights open rate and a 27-fold increase in email open rate, compared to non-personalised campaigns. increase in page views Journalists who initially were unconvinced now 20% for data-optimised articles refer to the data.

increase in push Lhote’s team is currently customising the site 30X notification open rate homepage, using a subscriber’s unique profile to personalise recommendations. But even increase in with the technological advances, Lhote insists 27X email open rate the news agenda will always be set by editors. “The first five articles on the homepage should be an editorial choice. We need to offer basic information. Even if the reader doesn’t like tennis, if Federer wins Wimbledon, we’ll tell them.”

DNI funding allowed us to build a model to reveal insights that helped us to create a deeper connection to our fans. Romain Lhote, L’Équipe Head of Data

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 14 Case studies Boosting Digital Revenues

PS Plus | Czechia | €218K Funding | Nonprofit The gamification of news subscriptions

Project Syndicate, a Prague-based Driven by a belief in open-access content, Project news NGO, delivers quality journalism Syndicate knew a traditional paywall was never to global publishers, regardless of their an option. Instead, it built a platform serving ability to pay. Since launching in 2019, members based on their behaviour, and a rewards programme for sign-ups. its subscribers have grown by 116% year-over-year, thanks to its game- Potential subscribers have a selection of ways like referral system that connects to sign up for the service, as well as being contributors and subscribers. These like- offered the ability to offset future subscription fees by sharing Project Syndicate’s content minded readers share tracked links and and accruing credits or gifting subscriptions to collect points, which can be exchanged friends and family. for cash, when someone joins. “Readers can use their points to, for example, offset an upcoming subscription fee, or, in the Project Highlights spirit of Project Syndicate, donate their points back to projects,” explains Deputy Managing subscriber growth Editor Rachel Danna. year-on-year 116% “Tracking links lets us serve a pop-up or personal note to new users, saying ‘This content paid subscribers, a tripling is free because X shared it with you. To get a in growth since 2019 9K 50% discount, click here’.”

media partners Project Syndicate hopes to create ambassadors 500 in 157 countries out of contributors and readers who will regularly champion the mission and global organisation.

Our mission is to provide access to global thought leaders and expert authors’ commentary to as many people around the world as possible. Rachel Danna, Project Syndicate Deputy Managing Editor

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 15 Case studies Telling Local Stories

Local Recall | UK | €676K Funding | Local Publisher Giving local history a voice

Archant, a local UK newspaper Local Recall launched in August 2020 with publisher, is monetising historical news over a century’s worth of Eastern Daily Press stories with Local Recall. Bringing news stories. In just a few weeks, the service together intelligent voice infrastructure accumulated over 300 paying subscribers. Today, with a team of over 900 volunteers, and chatbot functionalities, the it will soon be available across a further publisher digitised its 150-year-old 54 titles, showing how important local news archive to create a voice-activated still is to the community. news service. Local Recall lets users ask questions about past events, access archived stories and hear Project Highlights responses from voice-activated devices such as Google Home. Archant’s Chief Client Officer Lorna Willis says the team of volunteers has paying subscribers generated created “one of the most advanced voice in the first few weeks 300 infrastructures in the UK” by manually digitising damaged archives that even the most advanced weekly increase scanners could not achieve. 10% in subscribers Archant is freely offering Local Recall volunteers technology to competitors. Its long-term goal is 900 enlisted to see other publishers use the tool for their own content. As Willis sees it, “If local content isn’t available where people want it, when they want it, we’re planning the collective demise of local news publishing.”

We’ve created one of the most advanced voice infrastructures in the UK. To do it, we broke the habit of compromise, surrounded ourselves with experts and didn’t set limits on the project. DNI funding made it all possible. Lorna Willis, Archant Chief Client Officer

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 16 Case studies Telling Local Stories

Ländlepunkte | Austria | €350K Funding | Local Publisher Building loyalty through gamification

Bringing together behavioural science Given how important it is to get users to log and tech innovation, the team at VOL. in, the project has surpassed expectations. AT (a local news site for Vorarlberg, “We used to have 3% of our users logged in,” western Austria) created a loyalty says CEO of Russmedia Gerold Riedmann. “Now, about 30% of our repeat users are.” scheme, encouraging users to engage with its content by awarding The loyalty scheme was created using them redeemable points, called techniques seen in gaming platforms to Ländlepunkte, as they read articles. build a loyal base of users. Riedmann explains, “A extensive project like this wouldn’t have been possible without external backing. DNI funding offered us the chance to escape the zero Project Highlights price point trap.” The technology is not restricted to this increase in publisher and can be used on any website registrations 10X – it’s already being used by IKEA in Switzerland and supermarket chains. user logins a day via 3.3K points rewards system There are plans to expand the rewards scheme into a local currency, and then use of points used to purchase GPS functionality to trigger mobile messages 65% VOL.AT’s own products and nudge members to visit VOL.AT business partners for special offers or promotions. Ultimately, says Riedmann, the technology enables businesses to “make loyal customers out of fly-by web traffic.”

It’s been a 10-fold growth project for us and there are not a lot of those happening in our industry. Gerold Riedmann, Russmedia Digital CEO

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 17 Case studies Telling Local Stories

Buletin de București | Romania | €50K Funding | Nonprofit Strengthening local news with data-based journalism

Bringing municipality data to life, the Funky Citizens President and Co-founder Buletin de București — the brainchild of Elena Calistru explains, “Our most important NGO publisher Funky Citizens — aims achievement has been using data in local to paint a true picture of Romania at a journalism, which was a new approach in Romania.” The Buletin de București was created local level. to bring new energy into local news in a country with what Calistru calls “a vulnerable journalistic landscape.” (Romania ranked 48th in the World Project Highlights Press Freedom Index 2020.)

unique visitors The project’s impact is keenly felt in the role it 624K to date has played in coronavirus pandemic coverage. The team produced data-driven content during of audience is a time when information from the authorities 80% 25-44-year-olds was unclear. Significantly, the Buletin de București broke a story showing where funds of further funding from were misspent in Personal Protective Equipment €70K other European sources (PPE) procurement during the pandemic and used the data as incontrovertible evidence to rebut charges of spreading fake news.

In the future, Calistru plans to improve the project’s sustainability by introducing subscriptions and crowdfunding. It’s part of a diversified funding model that Calistru believes is essential for news outlets’ survival.

The project wouldn’t have existed without DNI funding – while we constantly felt the need to have both data journalism and community-focused interventions, we didn’t have the resources or the courage to start this on our own. Elena Calistru, Funky Citizens President

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 18 Case studies Battling Misinformation

Debunk | Lithuania | €315K Funding | Online Pure Player Combatting online disinformation

Debunk (Demaskuok in Lithuanian) In the Baltics, cyberattacks and disinformation from Delfi, the largest online news are major problems. To give a sense of the scale publisher in the Baltics, is an initiative of the issue, Debunk analysed 9,881 articles to tackle fake news online using a between April and June 2020, spotting 617 disinformation cases related to Lithuania, Latvia combination of artificial intelligence- and Estonia in the context of Covid-19. based analytics and a dedicated community of volunteers. In order to provide analyses of online content at that scale, the company created advanced web-scraping tools and smart filters to automatically detect potential disinformation. Regular notifications are Project Highlights sent to a network of fact checkers who’ve earned the title ‘elves’ due to their troll-fighting powers. countries with This mixture of tech and human intervention means technology implemented 6 that articles with harmful content can be flagged, and journalists automatically notified. countries with 17 partnered organisations Since its launch in 2018, Debunk has worked with organisations in 17 countries around the world. reports produced DNI funding has been pivotal to enabling the 72 per year resources, developers and specialists required for the project. “We needed to hire people who had disinformation cases knowledge of political science and international 617 spotted in past six months relations, alongside developers who would be able to work with machine learning and artificial intelligence,” says Ieva Ivanauskaitė, Head of Business Development at Delfi.

In Lithuania, when we need to defend our country against propaganda and fake news, we are united. ‘Hawk’, a Debunk ‘elf’ working undercover

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 19 Case studies Battling Misinformation

Edge NPD | Poland | €662K Funding | Startup Protecting publishers from fake and bot traffic

By building an anti-bots and trolls shield, Advertisers’ budgets can be severely impacted Edge NPD has helped protect readers, by fake and automated traffic due to fraudulent publishers and advertisers globally clicks and views being recorded. Founder from the negative impact of fake traffic, Dobromir Ciaś was determined to find a way that every publisher could instantly identify sources of estimated to cost tens of billions of bot traffic, disinformation and trolling. euros per year – and growing. By embedding technology into a commercial advertising model, the team at Edge NPD, a Project Highlights business intelligence company founded in 2013, was certain it could secure any campaign from major Polish publishers protected fraud and so developed ABT Shield. 3 from fake and automated traffic The DNI Fund was essential for building the technology, designed in close cooperation with bots and trolls publishers, advertisers, academics and think 1.8M blocked tanks. Since the product’s release, the company has partnered with some of the biggest names in the Polish news ecosystem and received an award for innovation from the Marketing Communication Association.

Just as you try to keep our planet clean, The company is seeing ABT Shield having a tangible impact on digital advertising, with we should keep the internet clean advertisers more likely to spend money and from the disease spread by bots and allocate budget for campaigns when the trolls. It is our social and commercial protection is in place. responsibility. As a publisher. As an advertiser. As an active technological participant of the internet environment.

Dobromir Ciaś, Edge NPD Founder

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 20 Case studies Exploring New Technologies

RADAR | UK | €706K Funding | News Agency Powering local news rooms with data and automation

RADAR (Reporters and Data and bespoke versions distributed to 385 UK local Robots) provides subscriptions to 400 authority areas. Publishers can subscribe to UK newsrooms to create data-driven a Press Association daily feed of insights for articles using a blend of human and one or more of those areas.” This process sees journalists working at RADAR writing a story artificial intelligence. template with wording for each of the various RADAR CEO Alan Renwick explains, “Our possible scenarios that a story could take, automated distribution helps us get important for example a rise or fall in violent crime or data insights to every citizen every day. traffic accidents. Then versions of the story are Instead of writing one version of a story, we automatically created for the UK’s local authority use automation to create large numbers of areas, using the data for that location to shape the most relevant story.

Project Highlights RADAR Data Journalist Katie Williams explains, “Data analysis can be a really daunting prospect, especially for local journalists who are busy articles per year in their patch, which is why RADAR is so vital.” generated 200K Currently, RADAR articles have 95% pick-up digitally and, when it comes to print, many are UK newspaper front-page stories. 400 titles served The service is proving highly cost efficient for increase in subscriber publishers – fees are £1-2 per article compared 150% usage during 2020 to a newsroom production cost of approximately £20. In the future, the company plans to expand into other data-rich industries, including property, insurance and even retail.

We are filling a void and ensuring that important local issues – which matter to residents – are not going unreported. Katie Williams, RADAR Data Journalist

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 21 Case studies Exploring New Technologies

Into The Voice | Portugal | €390K Funding | Online Pure Player Digital newsroom tunes into radio future

For Portuguese digital news publisher Within a year of launching its audio service, Observador, DNI funding enabled a and with the help of DNI funding, Observador pivot to audio. Its voice service offers has gained 25% of the total audio on-demand on-demand digital and 24-hour radio market in Portugal. Its digital live feeds reach over 180,000 monthly unique users and its – and around 50 podcast shows are podcasts are consistently ranked in the top 50. recorded in house, making Observador one of Portugal’s biggest providers. To integrate audio services into its news offering and achieve this success, Observador completely rethought its newsroom workflows. Project Highlights Journalists produced text articles and on- demand voice packages simultaneously, and could live-stream interviews too. of Portugal’s audio on-demand 25% market gained in one year Although the Portuguese audio market is not as mature as that of some other countries, the monthly podcast success of the service has proved this was due 2M downloads to a lack of compelling offering rather than a problem with demand. The Observador team unique monthly users for now hope this experience will energise other 180K digital live feed publishers to follow suit.

I cannot imagine a successful news brand in five to 10 years’ time that is not able to produce, in quantity, quality audio content. Rudolf Gruner, Observador Director General

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 22 Case studies Exploring New Technologies

SESAAB | Italy | €400K Funding | Regional Publisher Customising news with artificial intelligence

In an age of content saturation, the Società Editrice Saints Alexander, Ambrose, Italian publisher of L’Eco di Bergamo Bassett (SESAAB) Chief Innovation Officer newspaper used artificial intelligence Francesco Sforna explains, “We built (AI) to create personalised newsletters algorithms that cluster content based on topics and user behaviour, as well as offer and online content recommendations. recommended content. If a user is browsing, after two or three articles, we suggest another article and a login call to action, to increase Project Highlights the signed-in activities.”

new subscribers In the last nine months, the publisher 11K in the last nine months increased its digital subscribers to 11,000 thanks to marketing activities, innovative of paid members access solutions, and a better user experience. 85% premium content daily Sforna says the more subscriptions, the more money can go into creating high-quality, increase in newsletter in-depth L’Eco di Bergamo articles. open rate 18% The news outlet has since sold the AI software to long-established Italian newspapers L’Unione Sarda and Giornale Di Brescia.

We were able to build a product that used AI to classify content and recommend articles, while enhancing user experience and reader loyalty. Francesco Sforna, SESAAB Chief Innovation Officer

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 23 Closing words

When we started brainstorming about how to Also, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if stimulate news innovation in Europe, we clearly you want to share any feedback and/or would didn’t know what to expect, but we knew we had like to be connected with another innovator to do this in the most open way possible. And in the news ecosystem: send a note to we had one goal: give anyone willing to think [email protected]. about tomorrow’s technology and business At Google, we’ve been so inspired by what models for journalism the room to take risks and has been accomplished here in Europe that try new things. Thus was born the Innovation we decided to launch a worldwide global pillar of the DNI: a call to every innovator in the programme in the wake of the European DNI news ecosystem to think big (and small!) by Fund. In March 2019 we launched the Google submitting their application(s) to the DNI Fund. News Initiative and, as part of it, the Innovation Looking back, with more than 5,100 projects Challenges to continue sparking creative received, 662 selected and the €150 million fund thinking and to help design a more sustainable fully allocated – we are pleased that our early future for journalism. intuitions at the time of our initial brainstorm were proven correct, namely: In Latin America, Asia Pacific, North America and the Middle East and Africa, we have 1. Good ideas can come from anyone, anywhere already reviewed over 1,700 applications and 2. Having an open approach stimulates the funded 126 innovative project ideas worth over entire ecosystem beyond the funding €17 million.

3. News publishers are creative and want to collaborate to solve common systemic issues

We hope this final DNI Fund Impact Report not Ludovic Blecher only brings full transparency to what has been Head of Google News achieved but also gives a sense of the profusion Initiative Innovation of great initiatives created to figure out new paths for sustainability through innovative use of technology. In this report, we’ve shared only Madhav Chinnappa some of what has been happening – so we Director of News Ecosystem really encourage you to dig deeper and visit our Development at Google website to discover all the projects!

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 24 Acknowledgements

Listed below are just some of the many Googlers (past and present) involved incredible people who have contributed to in the project: making the DNI Fund so valuable in its support Giorgia Abeltino; Benedicte Autret; Ram Aiyer; of innovation. The DNI Fund team would also Karie Jo Barwind; Carlo d’Asaro Biondo; Ludovic like to take this opportunity to say a huge ‘thank Blecher; Ralf Bremer; Megan Casserley; Emily you’ to all those who joined this journey. Clarke; Philippe Colombet; Matt Cook; Bernardo Correia; Kriti Dhall, David Dieudonné; Laura DNI Fund Council members: Doward; Olivier Esper; Constantin Foniadakis; Alexander Asseily, Founder of State and Richard Gingras; Maria Gomri; Sarah Hartley; Jawbone; Bart Brouwers, Professor in Joe Hawes; Christian Heise; Mark Jansen; Journalism, Groningen University & Owner Philipp Justus; Eero Korhonen; Debra Ladd; Nick Media52 BV and Zeelberg Media BV; Madhav Leeder; Ben Malbon; Flavia Martynov; Santiago Chinnappa, Head of Strategic Relations, News & de la Mora; Camilo Moreno; Sílvia Nobre; Publishers, Google; Arianna Ciccone, Co-Founder Michele Noten; Kay Oberbeck; Uchechi Okereke; and Director of the Perugia International Film Athina Pachatouridi; Simona Panseri; Prianka Festival; Veit Dengler, COO, Bauer Media Group; Pradhan; Anne-Gabrielle Dauba-Pantanacce; Andrew Dowsett, Chief Operating Officer at Marta Poślad; Gerrit Rabenstein; Damien PA media Group; Ronan Harris, Vice President Roemer; Anneka Sharpley; Isabelle Sonnenfeld; EMEA, Google; Bartosz Hojka, CEO, Agora Benjamin Shaw; Chris Stone; Riccardo Terzi; SA; Rosalia Lloret, CEO, Eldiario.es; Murdoch Al Verney; Kerry Walker; Kate Willis; Sandra MacLennan, Chairman, PA Media Group; Former Whitney; Jessica Worsdale; Rebecca Young; CEO, Telegraph Media Group UK; Miriam Meckel, Line Zouhour Adi Co-founder, CEO and publisher of ada Learning GmbH; Anthony Nakache, Director, Online From an incredible diversity of Google teams: Partnerships Group, EMEA; João Palmeiro, DNI Fund, EMEA Partnerships Solutions, Ethics President of the Portuguese publishers & Compliance, Finance, Global Partnerships, association; Bruno Patino, President of Arte Google News Initiative, Government Affairs France and Dean of Sciences-Po Journalism and Public Policy, Large Customer Sales, Legal, School; Torsten Schuppe, VP, Marketing, Google. Marketing, NewsLab, Online partnership group and many more! DNI Fund project team external assessors: Lucia Adams, Jassim Ahmad, Liliana Ashton, Patrick Aust, Danielle Batist, Sebastian Beyer, Martin Bryant, Nina Klass, Clare Cook, Kristen Davis, Helen Harvey, Sameer Padania.

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 25 Funded organisations

AUSTRIA Project Syndicate Camera Lucida Productions (PCL) Wedodata SAS APA-DeFacto Datenbank & Regie Radio Music spol. s.r.o. Casus Ludi Worldcrunch Contentmanagement GmbH (Lagardere Active Group) CCM Benchmark Group DOSSIER GmbH Sourcefabric z.ú. Challenges GERMANY Futurezone GmbH Transitions Condé Nast France Aela Callan influence.vision Contexte AKINGO Europe GmbH Krone Multimedia GmbH & Co KG DENMARK Corse Presse SA Bauer Xcel Media Deutschland KG / missMedia GmbH A/S Information CosaVostra Bauer Media Group NIMEH & Partners A/S Kristeligt Dagblad Courrier international SA Bauhaus-Universität Weimar ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4 Aps Altinget.dk E2J2 Ben Shaw Russmedia Børsen Ebra Group Berliner Morgenpost GmbH Sebastian Krause Constructive Institute Euronews Berliner Wochenblatt Verlag GmbH STANDARD Verlagsgesellschaft Danwatch Frontline Media Big Data Analytics Group at the m.b.H. Martin Luther University Halle- International Media Support Global Editors Network (GEN) Styria Media Group AG Wittenberg Jysk Fynske Medier P/S Golden Network (GM6) Telekurier Online Medien GmbH & Bryan McLeod Mandag Morgen Groupe L’Express Co KG Campaign Trail UG Mediehuset Herning Folkeblad Groupe La Dépêche du Midi UserNewsNet - Social Media News (haftungsbeschränkt) Mediehuset Ingeniøren A/S Agency Groupe Nice-Matin Content Flow GmbH Usable Machine Ijsbergpress CORRECTIV - Recherchen für die Videnskab.dk BELGIUM Indie Gesellschaft gGmbH Zetland Aps Belga News Agency Konbini Sas Daniel Mayer De Persgroep Publishing NV L’Equipe 24 24 Datenfreunde GmbH ESTONIA International News Media La Nouvelle République du Centre Dekoder-gGmbH Association (INMA) AS Eesti Meedia Ouest Deutsche Welle (DW) LAPRESSE.be - Alliance des Médias Õhtuleht Kirjastus AS Le Figaro Die Neue Welle Rundfunk- d’Information Le Parisien Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH & Mediafin FINLAND Le Parisien Libéré (by “UFIPAR”, a Co. KG Mediahuis N.V. Aatos productions oy “LVMH” group company) Digital Media Hub GmbH Roularta Media Group NV Aller Media Oy Le Télégramme dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH Sanoma Media Belgium NV/SA Alma Media Kustannus Oy Les Echos DuMont Net GmbH & Co. KG Vlaamse Radio - en Imake Les Jours Edenspiekermann AG Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT) Keskisuomalainen Oyj Libération Followistic UG VRT, VRT NWS KSF Media Ab Loopsider Frank Westphal Long Play Media Oy meltygroup Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung BULGARIA Lucify Oy Meteo Consult GmbH 168 Hours Ltd, part of Media Group Mediakunta Osk Monday Note SAS Bulgaria Holding FUNKE Digital TV Guide GmbH NewsInFocus Oy NextInteractive (part of Altice Damocles Analytics Ltd Media Group) G+J Innovation GmbH Otavamedia Oy Economedia AD Paris Normandie Golem Media GmbH Oy Suomen Tietotoimisto Finska Handelsblatt Media Group GmbH Investor.bg Notisbyrån Ab (STT) Philo Éditions & Co. KG SHYN ON Picks Playbac Presse Headline24 GmbH & Co. KG PLC Keski-Pohjanmaan Kirjapaino PlayPlay Heilbronner Stimme GmbH & Co. CROATIA Oyj Poool KG Gong Sanoma Media Finland Oy, Prisma Media Heise Medien GmbH & Co KG Styria Medijski servisi d.o.o. Helsingin Sanomat Radio France HMS Hamburg Media School Suomen Humanistinen Tomislav Simpovic Reporters d’Espoirs GmbH (Graduate Program in Digital Ammattikorkeakoulu Oy [Humak] RTL Information et diffusion ID Journalism) University of Applied Sciences CYPRUS Societe Editrice du Monde Ippen Digital GmbH & Co KG (Ltd.) Cyprus News Agency Société Ouest-France iRights.Lab Talentum Oyj Sparknews Jakob Vicari Turun Sanomat CZECHIA SSO Geste Journalism++ SAS Czech News Agency Tetu Ventures Klubradio unlimited GmbH FRANCE Douglas Arellanes and Pete TF1 SA Krautreporter 20 Minutes Haughie The Conversation France LiquidI Newsroom - Steffen Agence France Presse (AFP) Economia, a.s. Université Pierre et Marie Curie Konrath Atanas Tchobanov Geneea Analytics Usbek & Rica Medien Holding: Nord GmbH Bayard Presse Jan Klesla VoxEurop Société Coopérative Mittelbayerischer Verlag KG Brief.me Jaroslav Benc Européenne à responsabilité limitée

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 26 Funded organisations

Nette & Wilenius UG Független Újságírók Alapítványa Torlone Gianfranco NORWAY (haftungsbeschränkt) (Independent Journalism Valerio Bassan Aftenposten Mobil AS. Foundation) Nuzzera Visup Ex srl (Aftenposten AS/Schibsted Norge HVG Kiadó Zrt. AS) One Eighty Viz&Chips PayPeanuts GmbH Institute of Informatics Amedia AS K-Monitor Association Aptoma AS Perspective Daily UG LATVIA Magyar Jeti Zrt. Bakken & Bæck AS Presse-Druck- und Verlags-GmbH Adevo Mediaworks Hungary Zrt Dagbladet AS Res Publica Verlags GmbH LETA Mertek Mediaelemzo Muhely DB Medialab AS Rhein-Zeitung – Mittelrhein-Verlag Renars Liepins GmbH Nonprofit Ltd. Front Kommunikasjon AS Sultan Suleimanov RiffReporter eG New Wave Media Group Kft. Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen AS The Baltic Center for Investigative Russmedia Kft. Robert Heinecke, Sascha Kuntze Journalism Re:Baltica Mediaconnect AS und Jan Rübbelke GbR Transparency International Mediehuset Nettavisen AS RP Digital GmbH Hungary LITHUANIA Muml Hilde Gudvangen ENK Schwäbisch Media Digital GmbH XXI. század Média Kft. BNS Lithuania Norsk Telegrambyrå AS & Co. KG Delfi UAB Publish Lab AS Science Media Center Germany IRELAND Joint-stock company Scandinavia Online AS gGmbH Conor Molumby PI Šiauliai plius Socius AS sh:z Schleswig-Holsteinischer Ernesto Diaz-Aviles Zeitungsverlag GmbH & Co. KG VsI “360 laipsniu filmai” Teknisk Ukeblad Media AS Independent News & Media PLC Spectrm Publishing UG (INM) POLAND Spiegel Online GmbH Investigations Unit - Radio Teilifis LUXEMBOURG Taz Entwicklungs GmbH & Co. Eireann European News Exchange S.A. 300GOSPODARKA SP. Z O.O. Medien KG (taz, die tageszeitung. Journal Media Ltd. Saint-Paul Luxembourg 302POLITYKA sp. z o.o. Verlagsgenossenschaft eG) NevaLabs Agora SA TextOmatic AG Newslinn Technologies LTD MALTA Burda Media Poland The Buzzard UG Steve Dempsey Mediatoday Co. Limited E-Kiosk S.A. Trendspurt GmbH The Irish Times Ltd Edge NPD Sp. z o.o. Unternehmensgruppe Aschendorff, NETHERLANDS Eurozet Sp. z o.o Aschendorff Medien GmbH & Co. Fratria sp. z o.o. KG ITA LY Adriana Homolova Fundacja ePaństwo Verlag Der Tagesspiegel GmbH Adnkronos SpA Unipersonale Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau ANP BV Gazeta Wyborcza VRagments GmbH AGI Agenzia Giornalsitica Italia Spa ANP Holding B.V. GLOB360 Sp. z o.o WAN-IFRA Alice Corona Blendle B.V. Gremi Media S.A. We-Build.City GmbH Carlo Strapparava Business Nieuws Holding B.V. Grupa Interia.pl Sp. z o.o. sp. k. Westdeutsche Verlags- und Catchy S.r.l. Werbegesellschaft Ced Digital & Servizi srl Butch & Sundance Media Grupa Radiowa Agory Sp. z o.o. WirtschaftsWoche (Handelsblatt Cefriel Cartoon Movement Grupa RMF Sp. z o.o. Sp. k. GmbH) Corriere della Sera, RCS Charged PBeM Sp. z o.o. ypsilon.io UG MediaGroup S.p.A Coöperatie House of Journalism Piotr Fedorczyk ze.tt GmbH Elemedia S.p.A. UA PMPG Polskie Media SA ZEIT ONLINE GmbH Fondazione openpolis Dag en Nacht Media POLITYKA Sp. z o. o. SKA GEDI Gruppo Editoriale S.p.A. De Volkskrant Polska Press Sp. z o.o. GREECE Good Morning Italia srl Deeptrace Stowarzyszenie Gazet Lokalnych 24MEDIA ΑΝΩΝΥΜΗ ΕΤΑΙΡΕΙΑ Il Sole 24 Ore Spa DUIC & DIG & MILVUM TVN S.A. ΨΗΦΙΑΚΩΝ ΕΦΑΡΜΟΓΩΝ Investigative Reporting Project Italy Follow the Money BV (FTM Media Webnalist sp. z o.o. BV) Aristotle University of Thessaloniki- (IRPI) Wirtualna Polska Media S.A. Het Financieele Dagblad BV Special Account of Research Funds ITEDI/Il Secolo XIX ZPR Media Athens Technology Center SA LA SICILIA - Domenico Sanfilippo Katalysis B.V. Mind the facts bv Augustine Zenakos Editore S.p.A. PORTUGAL Netherlands Institute for Sound ENIKOS S.A. La Stampa (Editoriale Itedi- Italiana Acormedia SA Editrice SPA) and Vision Foundation for Research and Alberto Pereira Technology Hellas Linkiesta.it New Atoms Antonio Bernardino Liquid Media SA Littlesea Srl Noor Images B.V. Cofina Media National Center for Scientific Media Vox Pop srl NRC Media Empresa Diário de Noticias, Lda Research “Demokritos” Mitecube Srl nwzer Empresa Jornalística Região de Oikomedia amke Open State Foundation Mondadori Scienza Spa Leiria, Lda Real Media S.A. Publicism B.V. News3.0 SpA Global Notícias, Publicações S.A University of Piraeus Research Reblr onData Impresa Office & Service Share S.A Center Remy Koens Poligrafici Editoriale - Gruppo Impresa Publishing Monrif RTL Nieuws, part of RTL Nederland Inês Bravo HUNGARY Radio 24 - 24 ORE Group Sanoma Media Netherlands BV Atlatszo.hu Közhasznú Nonprofit INESC TEC - O Instituto de Radio Radicale, Centro di Stichting Free Press Unlimited Engenharia de Sistemas e Kft. Produzione Spa Stichting Global Voices Computadores, Tecnologia e Center for Media, Data and Society RCS MediaGroup S.p.A. Ciência at the Central European University, Stichting Lokale Sesaab Spa Budapest Hungary Onderzoeksjournalistiek João Antunes Sicilian Communication Srl Central Digital Media Ltd. VPRO Lusa – Agência de Notícias de Società Athesis S.p.A. Portugal, SA David Koranyi

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 27 Funded organisations

Media Capital Digital Ediciones El Pais S.L. Archant Community Media Ltd TRUE 212 Limited Moura & Vilhena, LDA Ediciones Prensa Libre, SL Associated Press Television News Turi Munthe Observador Ontime SA Editorial Ecoprensa S.A. Limited UK Citizens Online Democracy Plataforma de Media Privados El Independiente. Park Row Digital, Bellingcat University of Central Lancashire (PMP) S.L. Below the Radar Ltd (UCLan) Publico - Comunicação Social SA El León de El Español, S.A. Bistromathics Limited University of Sunderland Ricardo Lafuente eldiario.es Caerphilly Media Ltd Verifeye Media LTD University of Porto Europa Press Comunicacion S.A. City University London Vivarta VISAPRESS - Gestão de Conteúdos Fundación Ciudadana Civio Counterpointing UK Ltd WikiTribune Ltd dos Media, CRL Grupo Heraldo Coventry University Vitri Unipessoal Lda Henneo Dennis Publishing iLeon.com - Servicios Generales de Explaain ROMANIA Comunicación y Gestión, S.L. Factmata Limited Asociația Media DoR La Voz de Galicia, S.A Financial Times Limited Association for Social Minushu SLU Full Fact Entrepreneurship “Plus One” Partal Maresma i Associats SL GLITCH.DIGITAL LIMITED Centrul Roman pentru Jurnalism Politibot Innovación, SL ImmersiveIP Ltd de Investigatie (CRJI) Precept Independent Television News Ltd Europe Developpement Prisa Brand Solutions, S.L.U. (ITN) International-R S.A. Prisa Inn S.A. IPTC - International Press Freedom House Romania Prisa Radio SA Telecommunications Council Funky Citizens Prodigioso Volcán James Durston Journalism Development Network Johnston Press plc (Organized Crime and Corruption Público.es Reporting Project) Quality Media Producciones Kaleida Networks Ltd. Media Bit Software SRL Serveis de Comunicació Global Kendra Foundation Ozon Vasile Sorin Aquitània SL (Nació Digital) Kiln Enterprises Ltd Republica.ro published by Tetragon Sima Applied Technologies S.L. Magnum Photos Publishing SRL Spain Media Magazine S.L. Media Innovation Studio, University Ringier Romania S.R.L. ThinkSize S.L. of Central Lancashire RISE Project / Paul-Cristian Radu Titania Compañía Editorial S.L. Mediaforce (Holdings) Limited SC Blue Insight SRL Unidad Editorial SA Metageni Limited SC Convergent Media SRL MGN Ltd Webcrumbz LTD SWEDEN News UK & Ireland Limited ZA CLOUD SRL 24 Media Network AB Newsquest Media Group Ltd AB Kvällstidningen Expressen Open Business Industry Group SLOVAKIA Bambuser AB Orion Technologies Limited Ľubomír Šulko, Jana Tutková, Bonnier News AB PinkNews Veronika Šoltinská Dagens Industri AB Press Association news agency N Press, s.r.o. Journalism Robotics Stockholm Ab Reach Shared Services Ltd Petit Press, a.s. MittMedia AB Reuters Limited Postoj, o.z. Newsreps AB School of Journalism, Media and Culture - Cardiff University Papereed AB Serelay LTD SLOVENIA Stadsporten Citygate AB (Citygate) Siine Ltd Danes je nov dan, Inštitut za druga Svenska Dagbladet (Schibsted vprašanja Media Group) Sky News E.B.S.I.-Evropski inštitut za Sydsvenska Dagbladets AB Snappd Ltd vedenjske študije TT News Agency Solent News and Photo Agency Event Registry d.o.o. South West News Service Limited Finspector / Neolab SWITZERLAND Springer Nature Limited HONIRE, inovativne informacijske awp Finanznachrichten AG Stuart Goulden tehnologije, d.o.o. AZ Zeitungen AG (AZ Digital) Talk About Local (West Midlands) Slovenska tiskovna agencija d.o.o. Limited Blasting News Ltd. (STA) Tanya Cordrey FixxPunkt AG TapeWrite LTD SPAIN Heidi Média SA, publishing compagny of Heidi.news Telegraph Media Group Limited 93 metros S.L. Le Temps SA The Bureau of Investigative Actividades Digital Media Journalism Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG Brainstorm Multimedia, S.L The Ferret Media Limited Scitec-Media Carlos Ruano The Financial Times Ltd TagesWoche Colectivo 5W, S.L. The Irish News Ltd Tamedia AG Corporacion Publicitaria De Medios The University of Sheffield WAN-IFRA Digitales SL The World Weekly Media Ltd We.Publish Association Cuonda Tomas Petricek Datadista Tortoise UNITED KINGDOM Diario AS S.L. (PRISA Group) Trinity Mirror Shared Services Ltd Al Jazeera International Diario de Navarra Trint Ltd Diario La Grada Ediciones, S.L. Angel Milev

Some organisations listed received funding for multiple projects DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT | 28 The Digital News Innovation Fund was a European programme, part of the Google News Initiative, set up to help journalism thrive in the digital age.

DNI FUND IMPACT REPORT

Find out more at g.co/dnifundreport