Google Update - 7 Feb 2019

Google and WordPress Come Together to Build a News Publishing Platform

Google and WordPress have come together to build a unique platform, which is specifically designed for publishing local news.The aim is to counteract the decline of the local newsroom, by making it easier for small publishers to effectively and affordably manage their platforms.

In fact, technology giant, Google, has made an investment of $1.2 million into the development of the platform, called “Newspack”. Additional funding for the effort, totaling another $1 million, has also been contributed by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Civil Media.

Online and local journalists will be able to make the most of this rapid and safe publishing system, offering bespoke solutions, while being low-priced. Journalists will use Newspack to perfect their publications, and this platform will allow them to do more of what they are exceptionally good at – covering news.

Google has stated the following about the Newspack Development:

“Journalists should be writing stories and covering their communities, not worrying about designing websites, configuring CMSs, or building ecommerce systems. Their publishing platform should solve these problems for them.”

Publishers on this secure platform will also be able to gain access to all plugins, as created by the community of WordPress developers, to further extend the functionality of News pack. However, the aim of the development of News pack is to help small publishers cut down the time they spend working on their publications, by offering a feature set tailored to news publishing, so they will be able to contribute more time to the editorial content.

A beta version of News pack is projected to be released by July, with the Global launch of the platform for publishers scheduled for later in the year.