TAKEAWAY: Google Inc. makes a donation to the Knight Foundation: digital news programs and study to benefit tremendously.
It is a good day for those who believe in an informed citizenry in the digital age.
Good friend Alberto Ibarguen, with whom we worked together when he was publisher of The Miami Herald, and who is now president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, send us an email to let us know that Google, Inc has just announced a $2 million grant to support Knight Foundation’s journalism and digital media programs.
Indeed, great news that we share with you. Here is what Alberto writes me about the grant:
Google’s grant is a significant endorsement of Knight’s work in support of ideas and initiatives that lead to informed and engaged communities. Our core belief is that informed people can best determine their own, true interests, so it is essential to democracy that we be well informed. It also represents Knight Foundation’s openness to collaboration and partnership with others as we seek new ways to effectively meet the news and information needs of communities in the digital age.
Here is how Google announced the grant through Nikesh Arora, President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development:
Journalism is fundamental to a functioning democracy, and we want to do our part to help fulfill the promise of journalism in the digital age. There is no better partner to support innovation and experimentation in digital journalism than Knight Foundation.”
Ibarguen added, “The free flow of information is essential to a well-functioning democracy. Already, more Americans get their information from the Internet than from newspapers. That trend will only intensify, making it imperative for our democracy that we find ways to effectively deliver the news and information people require on the new, digital platforms. It is essential in this transformative time that we join with others to find ways in which information can be generally shared so that, in Jack Knight’s words, the people ‘may pursue their true interests.’ Google is the right partner. We hope for many others.”
We know that the money donated by Google will be put to good use at the Knight Foundation which has already invested more than $100 million in a multi-faceted media innovation initiative. Its projects address media innovation on various levels, including national media policy, technology innovation, public media transformation and the evolution of the World Wide Web. Programs such as the Knight News Challenge, a media innovation contest, have to date spawned hundreds of community media experiments and other projects.
We look forward to watching the progress for digital news program development at the Knight Foundation.
For more about the Knight Foundation:
www.knightfoundation.org
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote informed and engaged communities and lead to transformational change.
Switching from e-ink to Android—a tailor-made platform for reading newspapers and magazines!
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/26/barnes-and-noble-nook-color-revealed/
Could this be the marriage of the decade? Apple and SONY?
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10900162/1/apple-and-sony-to-join-forces.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
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