The Digital News Initiative is a European organisation created by

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

to "support high-quality journalism through technology and innovation". It encompasses an "Innovation Fund" worth €150m, which in 2018 issued grants to 461 projects at news organisations across Europe. Google has faced skepticism by newsrooms, despite their acceptance of grants and tools as summed up by the 2020 report by

Netzpolitik netzpolitik.org is a German language news website on digital rights and digital culture. Among other topics, it covers mass surveillance, open source software, data protection and privacy and net neutrality. The blog was founded in 2002 by Mark ...

Goals

Google describe the goal of the Initiative as "helping journalism thrive in the digital age". The company breaks spending into four areas: * "Battling misinformation" * "Telling local stories" * "Boosting digital revenues" * "Exploring new technologies" However, German group

report that Veit Dengler, chairman of the DNI Fund Council, described it as "a PR instrument for Google to win over the European publishing industry".

Funding recipients

The Initiative's fund donates 88% of its dispensations to western Europe, and 54% to organisations founded before 1997. Prospective recipients are required to demonstrate how they create "economic value added for

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

business".

Proxy lobbying

In 2018, while campaigning against the proposed

Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, formally the Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96 ...

, Google encouraged members of the Initiative's working group to lobby their regional

MEPs A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

. The private request was revealed by the

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

, itself a recipient of grants from the Initiative, and was also published in full by German group

. It begins:

One of the actions from our DNI WG meeting in Lisbon was about more information about the proposed Copyright Directive. Apologies for the delay on my side and the timing is urgent as there is a vote in the Juri committee inkedof the European Parliament on June 20th on the Copyright directive. If you feel strongly about this, then please condsider contacting the MEPs inkedon the Juri committee. All the best - Madhav

Attached to the letter were a bullet pointed list of Google's opinions on the proposed reforms. Madhav Chinnappa, author of the email and "Director of News Ecosystem Development" at Google, later stated that the message had been sent in response to a request for comment by members of the working group.

References

{{Google LLC Google Journalism organizations in Europe