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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, N ov em be r 25 ,2 02 1 | 60 Torstar, the company that publishes more than 70 Metroland community newspapers and the To- ronto Star, has signed on to a news partnership with global search giant Goo- gle. Google News Showcase, which launched Oct. 27 in Canada, is a new service designed to give news from trusted publishers a high- er profile and help drive traffic back to the publish- ers' websites. News Showcase will in- clude select stories from partner publishers each day, including some that are only available to sub- scribers on the publishers' own websites. The stories are chosen and packaged by publishers, ensuring editorial control remains with the publications. "Quality, fact-checked journalism is a vital way to connect and inform peo- ple, and a crucial tool against misinformation. News Showcase will bring more of our award-win- ning local and national re- porting to Canadians, and the world," said Jordan Bi- tove, Toronto Star publish- er and Torstar co-owner. "It's an investment into the future of our newsrooms, our top-quality journalism and the future of news." In addition to Torstar, two other publishers -- Le Devoir and Les Coops de l'information -- are join- ing forces with Google on Wednesday. Previously an- nounced partners include Black Press Media, Glacier Media, The Globe and Mail, Métro Média, Narci- ty Media, SaltWire Net- work, Village Media and Winnipeg Free Press. The move comes at a crucial time for both the media and tech industries. The media has seen its tra- ditional business model collapsing, with advertis- ing revenue plunging for the last two decades, and subscription revenue not making up the shortfall. Tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Am- azon, meanwhile, have faced increasing calls for regulation amidst their market domination. Torstar publishes six daily newspapers, more than 70 weekly publica- tions, as well as several specialty websites includ- ing TheKit.ca and Wheel- s.ca. Les Coop de l'informa- tion publishes six daily French-language newspa- pers in Quebec and eastern Ontario. Publishers receive a set monthly fee for use of their articles, which are given more prominence than a simple link to a headline. Neither the amount of the monthly fee nor length of the agreement signed by Torstar was disclosed. The hope, said Google executive Brad Bender, is to help drive more readers to publishers' own web- sites, where they can then become subscribers. "That is a big driver of the program," said Bender, Google's vice-president of product management for news. Bender said Google News Showcase was devel- oped in collaboration with publishers themselves. Unlike Apple News +, which charges a subscrip- tion fee for access to its ser- vice, Bender said Google News Showcase will be free to users. That's some- thing Google has no inten- tion of changing, Bender added. Google News Showcase is available in more than a dozen countries around the world, and includes partnerships with more than 1,000 publications. It's part of a $1 billion (U.S.) in- vestment in the global journalism industry by Google. As part of that invest- ment, Google will be train- ing 5,000 Canadian jour- nalists over the next three years on strengthening their digital news skills. That is on top of the 1,000 the company says it has al- ready trained. TORSTAR ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH GOOGLE NEWS SHOWCASE JOSH RUBIN josh@thestar.ca BUSINESS Google News Showcase, which launched Oct. 27 in Canada, is a project designed to give news from top quality publishers such as Torstar a higher profile, and to help drive traffic to publishers' websites. Pexels photo Online registration for winter recreation and culture programs opens Wednesday, December 1 at 7 a.m. for Oakville residents. Visit programs.oakville.ca to browse diverse program offerings, registration information, and more. Get active and creative!