Douglas County Herald Receives Grant from Google Journalism Emergency Relief Fund
Devoted to the interests of all the people of Ava and Douglas County
by Michael Boyink / mike@douglascountyherald.com
Last April, Google announced a $300M global Journalism Emergency Relief Fund aimed at small to medium sized local newsrooms.
“Local news is a vital resource for keeping people and communities connected in the best of times,” said Richard Gingras, Google News Vice President. “Today, it plays an even greater function in reporting on local lockdowns or shelter at home orders, school and park closures, and data about how COVID-19 is affecting daily life.”
But the world is shifting under the feet of local news sources.
Local news “is being challenged as the news industry deals with job cuts, furloughs and cutbacks as a result of the economic downturn prompted by COVID-19,” said Gingras.
The Journalism Emergency Relief Fund aims to help news outlets respond to those new challenges.
According to the program’s website, “the Fund’s aim is to support the production of original journalism for local communities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
To apply, organizations have to:
Produce original content for local communities
Have a digital presence
Have been in operation for at least 12 months
Have between 2-100 fulltime employees.
12,000 news outlets from over 100 countries applied.
The Douglas County Herald was one of them.
We received word on Tuesday that we were awarded a $5000 grant in the first wave of recipients.
Under the terms of the grant, we are able to spend the funds on any costs “directly relating to the support or production of core news and original news reporting.”
Learn more about Google’s Journalism Emergency Relief fund online at: ‘.
