Financial Times and Google to significantly expand industry training partnership
FT Strategies – the subscriptions consultancy arm of the Financial Times – and Google, have announced that they are to significantly expand their joint industry training programme, which aims to support publishers with digital transformation. Over the next three years, the pair will work with 500+ publishers across 50 countries to help them deliver growth.
Part of the Google News Initiative (GNI), a key focus of the FT-Google collaboration is Digital Immersion Week, which FIPP also partners on. The latest magazine media leg of the course took place just last week, and included media owners from around the world.
Established in 2018, the GNI works closely with publishers and journalists to build a more sustainable, diverse and innovative news ecosystem, with a particular focus on subscription revenues. In 2020, after participating in the programme, eight European publishers including The Independent and El Pais acquired more than 100,000 new subscribers in twelve months, a growth of 31%.
Specific areas of focus include reader revenue, products &technology, data and audience engagement and diversity. Content is tailored for a range of organisations, from smaller, local publishers in the early stages of their digital journey to more established publishers with national and international audiences.
In the next year, programmes will be delivered in Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.
“Our experience at the FT in the past decade has shown that quality journalism can be a quality, digital growth business,” said FT CEO John Ridding. “At a time when the world needs sustainable, trusted journalism and access to news more than ever, I’m delighted that this programme, delivered in partnership with Google, will share that insight and expertise with many more publishers around the world.”
Google Managing Director, Global News Programmes and Ecosystem, Olivia Ma, added: “The Google News Initiative is focused on empowering publishers to drive sustainable change in news. Our partnership with FT Strategies is one of the ways we continue to deliver inspiring programmes that help establish a solid foundation for digital transformation and support the future of news.”
You can read the announcement in full here.
