Alphabet Inc. unit Google Inc. unveiled the Google News Initiative to "elevate and strengthen quality journalism," deal with misinformation and increase subscriptions.
The company also committed to spending $300 million over the next three years on various journalism-related projects, Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said in an official March 20 blog post.
As part of the new initiative, the U.S. search giant launched the Disinfo Lab alongside the First Draft to combat mis- and disinformation during elections and breaking news moments. The company will also work with the Poynter Institute, Stanford University and the Local Media Association to launch MediaWise, a U.S. project designed to improve digital information literacy for young consumers.
Google also launched Subscribe with Google, a platform to ease the subscription process to increase readership. Among other initiatives, Google is launching Outline, an open-source tool from Jigsaw that lets news organizations provide journalists more secure access to the internet.