US technology giant company Google has announced the launch of its Google News Initiative Advertising Lab (GNI) to support small and medium-sized news publishers producing original news for local and regional communities in India.

The program, aimed at newsrooms employing up to 100 members, will focus on technical and product training of teams, as well as technical implementation to help grow the organisation’s digital ad revenues, Google said in a blogpost.

The program will select up to 800 small to medium news publishers and work closely with a select subset to guide them through the optimisation/setup of their content management systems, websites, and ad setups, it added.

According to the Economic Times, the program is the latest in a host of GNI (Google News Initiative) programs working directly with news organisations of all sizes on developing new products, programs, and partnerships to help news publishers grow their businesses.

The tech giant noted that the last two years have been challenging across multiple dimensions for people and businesses around the world.

Google said, “There has never been a greater need for authoritative, timely journalism, yet many organisations are confronting challenges as the world reorients. Through this year, we have announced several initiatives to address the needs of startup new businesses, as well as large-scale news publishers in this altered landscape.”

Applications for the new program will be open until November 5, 2021.