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Applying for the Digital News Initiative Innovation Fund? Here’s Google’s advice

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The fifth round of Europe’s Google’s Digital News Initiative (DNI) Fund is now open, with applications being accepted until 9 April 2018.

The fund aims to support innovation in digital journalism, nurturing the development of new business models, as well as the changing way in which audiences now consume digital news. So far, the fund has allocated €94 million to 461 projects across 29 countries in Europe.

The theme for the fifth round is ‘diversifying revenue streams and innovative monetisation ideas’, so all medium project applicants, who are requesting up to €300,000 and large project applicants, who are requesting even more, will need to demonstrate that their pitches have a monetisation component in order to be eligible.

Monetisation was also the theme for the previous round of the fund, although this time the aim is to encourage news outlets to look beyond paywalls, said Ludovic Blecher, head of the DNI fund, adding that his team is open to answering any questions people might have during the process.

“Applicants should spend time on the website, looking at the FAQs, reading the terms and conditions and analysing previous projects – it should be seen as a process.

“It’s so important that applicants spend time to try to understand our criteria.”

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