The Digital News Initiative is a European organization designed by Google to support high-quality online journalism across the continent. It encompasses an “innovation fund” of almost Euros 150m, that in 2018 issued grants to four articles at online news organizations. It has been established to encourage European and international internet companies to create new digital content for distribution online. The first recipient was the French daily Le Figue magazine, which was awarded the first “digital award” in its long history. This marked a significant step forward in the growth of this initiative.

The digital news initiative is operated by the European Journalism Organization (EHO), a non-profit organization headed by former newspaper editorials and news agencies chief editor, Pierre guidestra. Its mission is to build a stronger Europe through more effective innovation and digital transformation. It has an estimated value of over 1 billion EUR (about US$1.6 billion) and the budget is growing steadily. The organization plans to increase the number of its licensed translators in the future, in order to expand its coverage of the English speaking world. It also aims to improve the experience of its readers, by providing them with access to the most authoritative information available from across Europe and beyond.

The digital news initiative follows on the heels of the European digital news platform newsroom, EFE, that was launched in August of last year. This service, aiming to bring together publishers, editors and reporters from different countries, is very similar to a US-wide web channel but operates solely within the European Union. EFE, however, is free to use. Unlike its sister organization, the Electronic Press Foundation, whose free membership is limited to a specific country or countries and does not include Portugal or Spain, the European Journalism Organization is open to all publishers anywhere in the world. It also offers additional channels of income, such as performance royalties and advertising.

Portugal, like the United Kingdom, has a thriving community of online journalists, who write for a variety of newspapers, magazines and blogs. In order to build up the digital news industry in Portugal, the Portugal newsrooms of EFE and PRWeb have been invited to take part in an innovation project co-hosted by the European Journalism Organization and the European Film, Animation and Music Organization. This working group, made up of members from each participating organization, is responsible for the development of new innovations for the field of digital news. Its current projects include the production of a Portuguese language version of the news portal Euro Portugal, the launch of a Portugal magazine focused on arts, and a range of podcasts. The working group is also responsible for the translation of documents from English to Portuguese and vice versa.

The European Journalism Organization has made great strides in providing training and development opportunities to media professionals, especially to newcomers and professional journalists. The association also provides support for young people interested in pursuing a career in the field of journalism. Its recent project, the Media and Transparency Lab, aimed to train students on digital journalism. This will be useful, especially as the role of transparency in the media will be debated more in the coming years.

The European Film, Animation and Music Organization have developed an innovation called “Euromedia,” which aims to create a European Information Service that allows users of various devices to access content across the board. Access will be free, as it is currently available in several countries. The working group, headed by Jon Benson, has been working on this project for the last few years and is currently at the pre-stage of development. Other members of the association are Belgium and Finland.

The Portugal Newsroom was launched by a former chief editor of the magazine La Gaceta, Antony van der Meij. He had decided to launch a new weekly magazine in Portuguese, and he wanted the publication to focus on breaking news, investigative reporting and cultural articles. It is not a mainstream media organization, but covers all topics relevant to the Portuguese business interests. He is aiming for a broad readership, with business readers and non-business readers included. It is breaking new ground in the area of online journalism, as most newspapers publish online material that is not openly accessible to the general audience.

The European Online Journalist’s Network (EON) is another useful instrument for those interested in disseminating information to the public. It aims to provide a platform for freelance journalists, essayists, translators and other professionals interested in conveying information to the wider market. Many of the publishers who are part of the EON are from Europe, including Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany and Portugal. The objective of this organization is to contribute to the growth of European online journalism and to establish a system of professional journals that contribute to the field.