Empowering India's news ecosystem: A year of impact and innovation
This year was critical for the news industry. Major elections across the globe, impacting over half the world's population, underscored the need for reliable journalism to combat misinformation and enable informed decision-making. Simultaneously, conflicts and crises dominated headlines, highlighting the important role newsrooms play in providing accurate and timely information.
However, research has shown there is declining trust and engagement among users. Working with news partners, our goal has always been to identify and address the fundamental challenges facing the news industry – sustainability and user growth, so that news media businesses can better achieve their business goals.
We're proud of the significant impact of our scaled and in-depth work with Indian news publishers, spanning efforts to understand new user behaviors and revenue streams, programs that have driven modernization and substantial revenue increases, and collaborative initiatives like Shakti, which has established a robust framework for combating misinformation. And we continue to partner with news organisations through the Google News Showcase.
Our commitment to support, collaborate and deeply partner with the Indian news ecosystem remains strong as we look to build on our existing work and create value for both news publishers and Google in 2025.
Here is a look at some of our programs in 2024 in detail.
Driving performance, growth and revenue
Over the span of two years, the GNI Indian Languages Program has supported publishers in delivering news across India’s diverse linguistic landscape. Our research on Indian Languages – Understanding India’s Digital News Consumer revealed a large, underserved audience seeking news in their native languages. This led us to launch the Indian Languages Program to empower local publishers with the tools and training they need to build robust digital infrastructure, modernize their online presence, and enhance user experience and engagement across platforms.
Since its launch, the program has supported 500+ publishers from 28 states in nine languages. Participating publishers have seen a 15% increase in active users and a 32% increase in page views, along with wider reach; a 39% increase in digital ad revenue; and deeper audience insights with GA4 and NCI. They have also adopted new content formats and reduced story production time using AI tools like Pinpoint.
Building on the focus on revenue sustainability, we conducted a study titled, ‘The Indian News Consumer: Willingness to Pay and Key Drivers,’ to help publishers build sustainable revenue streams. The study revealed that quality, flexibility, and convenience are key to winning Indian news subscribers. Specifically, 67% of current subscribers cited "reliable content" as their primary motivation to subscribe, while barriers include confusing pricing plans, limited budgets, and a lack of flexible payment options. These insights are being used to equip publishers with the knowledge they need to navigate the digital landscape, capitalize on the opportunities, and support sustainable growth, keeping the news consumer at the heart of their strategies.
Further supporting emerging news organisations, the GNI Startups Lab India program - a 16-week initiative crafted to cater to the unique needs of news startups - empowered the 10 participating publishers with the tools, resources, and mentorship necessary to drive sustainable business growth. Through workshops, sustainability diagnosis (assessing performance across product, audience, monetization, and financial resilience), and one-on-one mentoring, startups received actionable insights to plan for future growth and explore new monetization and engagement strategies. By the end of the program, participants experienced a total digital ad revenue increase of over 150% month-over-month, 36% increase in monthly page views and 43% increase in user engagement.
In addition to our scaled programs, we’ve also partnered with publishers like ABP Network, Amar Ujala, Eenadu, Indian Express, India Today, Malayala Manorama, HT Media, NDTV and Times of India on tailored digital transformation initiatives that support experiments to better understand users, aid modernization and innovation and improve revenue.
Combating misinformation
In addition to driving performance, a critical focus has been combating misinformation, especially during key events like India's general elections. And so, this year, we supported Shakti, a consortium of news publishers and fact checkers in India, launched to combat misinformation. This initiative brought together over 50 news publishers and 300 journalists to debunk misinformation and deepfakes in 10 local languages, reaching a vast audience. In just three months, over 6,600 fact-checks were amplified, leading to a 180% surge in regional language fact-checks and a 92% increase in election-related fact-checks. By providing a collaborative platform for sharing fact-checks, research resources, and alerts, Shakti enabled newsrooms to publish fact-checks 78% faster and facilitated the creation of over 67 new fact-checking desks.
With over 1,700 journalists receiving specialized training, the Shakti program has now expanded to include 100 publishers across languages, formats and new topics and is covering state elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Delhi. Complementing this effort, our support to award-winning news and information literacy programs—Sach Ke Saathi Seniors, FactShala, and more—provided capacity building and mentoring in over 100 cities this year, empowering diverse groups, including youth and senior citizens, to develop critical thinking skills, identify misinformation, and locate trustworthy sources.
Advancing newsrooms with AI
Recognizing the transformative potential of AI in journalism (with transcription, research, translation or data analysis), we've introduced new training programs to empower news organizations to integrate these technologies responsibly. We partnered with FT Strategies earlier this month to host an AI Design Sprint for 14 news publishers. This workshop focused on practical AI use case implementation, providing hands-on experience in solution design, action planning, and risk management, enabling participants to holistically consider the implications of AI adoption and adopt a practical, agile approach.
Expanding Google News Showcase
In May 2021, Google announced a package of investments to support India’s news ecosystem, including launching Google News Showcase - our product experience for readers and licensing program for news publishers. Since its launch, Showcase deals have been signed with 90+ partners representing 175+ publications in India, with many of these renewed this year. Showcase now covers 8 languages including Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, English, and Hindi.
We're dedicated to supporting news organizations with the tools, resources, and expertise they need to thrive in the digital age. Over the course of 2025, we are excited to partner with news organizations to help them meet their business goals.