EastMojo is proud to announce that Northeast India’s premier digital news platform has been selected as part of the third Asia Pacific Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge — a program that supports innovative projects that help create a more sustainable and diverse news ecosystem.
EastMojo is among the 19 organizations selected from across 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and among six organisations from India, to take their innovative ideas forward with support from GNI.
As part of the Google GNI Innovation challenge, EastMojo aims to build a community of ‘News Responsible’ readers and source stories from the ground while empowering readers and turning stakeholders into contributors for impactful reports.
“These projects showcase creative solutions to common publisher challenges like rethinking advertising revenue models, engaging with more diverse audiences, ensuring representation across underrepresented communities, and identifying online misinformation,” GNI said in a statement.
Explaining the idea behind their project, Karma Paljor, editor-in-chief of EastMojo, said, “Despite the advent of social media, the gap between newsrooms and readers is larger than ever. Most often, emails, letters and calls made to the newsroom evoke no, or worse, an indifferent response. While powerful lobbies hog all the news space, readers go years without knowing who to contact if they have news to share.”
“We will empower our readers and turn stakeholders into contributors for impactful ground reports that bring about crucial and contextual change,” he added.
Explaining how the project differs from the once popular ‘citizen journalist’ format, Tanushree Hazarika, co-founder of EastMojo, said, “Rather than citizen journalists, we aim to build a community of ‘News Responsible’ citizens who are aware of their rights and believe in amplifying issues to bring change.”
The other Indian publications selected for the GNI Innovation challenge include PublicNext, The Ken, Newslaundry, Mojo Story and Scroll Media.
The selected projects will showcase innovative solutions to address challenges such as ensuring representation of voices across marginalised communities, delivering news in unique formats for inclusivity, and incorporating digital tools to create multimedia news stories accessible across multiple local languages.
“Every Innovation Challenge project we support represents the best of the best ideas in advancing digital news media. Applications undergo a rigorous and competitive assessment process. When a project is selected for funding, a wide group of Google employees and industry experts have agreed on a high potential for meaningful impact and inspiration. We are excited to share the 357 recipients of the GNI Innovation Challenges in Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, Turkey & Africa and North America representing 78 countries around the regions,” the GNI said.
Dear Reader,
Every day, our team at EastMojo travels through rain, rough roads, and remote hills to bring you stories that matter – stories from your town, your people, your Northeast.
We do this because we believe in truthful, independent journalism. No big corporate backing, no government pressure – just honest reporting by local journalists who live and breathe the same air you do.
But to keep doing this work, we need you. Your small contribution helps us pay our reporters fairly, reach places others ignore, and keep asking the tough questions.
If you believe the Northeast deserves its own fearless voice, stand with us.
Support independent journalism. Be a Member.
Thank you,
Karma Paljor
Editor-in-Chief, eastmojo.com
Also read | In 4 years, EastMojo has changed the face of journalism in NE