New Delhi, Oct 5 (PTI) Google on Tuesday announced the launch of its Google News Initiative Advertising Lab to support small and medium-sized news publishers producing original news for local and regional communities in India.

The programme, 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.

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The programme 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.

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

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

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

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

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)