Tech giant Google on Monday announced the launch of its first India-focused Newsroom Leadership program in collaboration with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
The six-month-long program, to be conducted virtually in this edition, aims to enhance the leadership skills and nimble decision-making capacity of newsroom leaders working and living in India, the tech giant said in a blog post.
It will particularly focus on applied technology, audience understanding, design thinking, data applications, emerging business models, and editorial innovation.
“We look forward to working closely with the news industry and continuing to support authoritative, high-quality journalism in India,” said Surabhi Malik, Program Director at Google News Initiative India Training Network, in the blog post.
She added that the participants will gain skills and knowledge to make better strategic decisions for their newsrooms and audiences.
The Asia Pacific-wide program, launched first in August 2019, is aimed at helping journalists learn digital tools that can make great storytelling even better, championing socially-conscious reporting and investigating new approaches to political polling along with exploring new membership and revenue models for news, helping fund the future of journalism in their countries.
“In 2021, the landscape for news, as with businesses across the spectrum, stands altered. Building viable news businesses for the digital world is now a key priority in newsrooms across the globe, with local realities such as the linguistic diversity of a country adding layers that demand localized approaches,” Malik said.
The program is free of charge for successful applicants – mid-career newsroom leaders working full-time in editorial positions at news organizations in India.
The application window for the program, starting from April through August, closes on 15 February 2022.
