Twenty years ago, Google opened its first office in Japan. Today, we are announcing new investments that will continue our support of the country’s vibrant news industry. These investments will help people find quality journalism and contribute to the sustainability of news organizations. They will also help newsrooms engage their readers in new ways, through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Launching Google News Showcase in Japan
To support news organizations and readers in Japan, we’re introducing Google News Showcase, our new curated online experience and licensing program. News Showcase panels display an enhanced view of an article or articles, giving participating publishers more ways to bring important news to readers and explain it in their own voice, along with more direct control of presentation and branding. The panels will appear across Google News on Android, iOS and the web, and in Discover on iOS and Android. They direct readers to the full articles on their websites, driving valuable traffic to those news organizations and enabling them to deepen their relationships with readers.
Starting today, News Showcase is rolling out in Japan with more than 40 news publishers including national, regional and local news organizations like The Yomiuri Shimbun, The Asahi Shimbun Company, Nikkei Inc.,The Chunichi Shimbun, KAHOKU SHIMPO PUBLISHING CO. and The Kyoto Shimbun Co., Ltd., together with news agencies JIJI PRESS, LTD. and Kyodo News. This launch builds on News Showcase deals signed with nearly 1,000 news publications in more than a dozen countries, including India, Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, the U.K., Australia, Czechia, Italy, Colombia and Argentina,with discussions underway in several other countries. More than 90% of the publications that have joined News Showcase so far provide local or community news.
The primary goal of News Showcase is to highlight news publishers that are invested in comprehensive current events journalism in the public interest. We are giving them a new way to curate their high-quality content on Google’s News and Discover platforms, bringing essential news coverage to readers looking for it.
