Google waives Ad Serving fee for 5 months to support news partners during COVID-19 crisis

Google on Friday decided to waive ad serving fees for news publishers globally on its Ad Manager for five months. The decision has been taken to help news partners during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most news publishers around the world use Google Ad Manager to support their digital businesses with advertising. “As the coronavirus pandemic takes a toll on our global economy, the Google News Initiative is working to identify ways to provide immediate financial support to those news organisations around the world producing original journalism,” said Jason Washing, Director of Global Partnerships – News. [caption id=“attachment_7739101” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] Image: Reuters[/caption] Washing added that over the coming days, Google will inform its news partners that meet the requirements about the programme details and what they can expect to see in their account statements. Google said that its News Initiative’s Journalism Emergency Relief Fund that has been delivering aid to thousands of small and local news publishers across the globe will also support the industry. On 15 April, Google News Initiative has launched Journalism Emergency Fund to provide urgent aid to small, medium and local news publishers during the pandemic. Google’s Vice President News Richard Gingras said the funding is open to news organisations generating original news for local communities during the time of crisis and will range from the low thousands of dollars for small hyper-local newsrooms to low tens of thousands for larger newsrooms. He added that publishers from any part of the world can apply for funds via a simple application form. The Application will close on 29 April 2020.