As the New Zealand news industry continues to evolve, Google is working to support Kiwi journalists and news organisations of all sizes to respond to the changing way people are looking for and consuming information online.
Google Search and Google News helps our publishers connect with a local and global audience looking for news content, and the Google News Initiative (GNI) is our decades-long effort to help news publishers navigate this inflection point.
Whether it's by helping Kiwi publishers connect with audiences, build new business models on digital platforms, or improve productivity through innovative tools and products, many New Zealand publishers have participated in valuable Google-sponsored (free) programs.
Google News Showcase
Since our launch of Google News Showcase in 2022 we’re the only digital platform with commercial agreements, and over 95% of eligible news publishers have signed ongoing partnerships. Representing over 50 different publications, titles include Stuff, TVNZ, NZME, RNZ, Whakaata Māori, The Spinoff and Allied Press, as well as local and regional publishers like Times Online and The Ashburton Guardian.
AI Powering Journalism
Pinpoint, Google’s AI research tool, has enabled TVNZ to digitise its physical archive of over 700,000 newspaper clippings. Previously difficult to access, this collection of New Zealand history from the 1960s onward is now instantly searchable for all staff. With funding from Google, the articles were scanned and uploaded to Pinpoint, allowing journalists to easily fact-check and uncover new stories. Similarly, the digital publisher Crux used the tool to analyze a large volume of documents and uncover critical information for its investigation into the Queenstown Lakeview development.
Evolving Business Models
We have collaborated with news publishers to identify key business challenges and then applied strategic Google support to find solutions. Examples include:
Our latest case studies underline our ongoing support for diverse audiences. We helped Whakaata Māori to rebuild the Te Ao Māori News App, NZME to enhance audience engagement on NZ Herald online and build subscription revenue, and Stuff to adopt a data lead user needs framework to guide content commissioning.
Google is delivering a tailored one to one consultation and implementation program in 2025 with the News Consumer Insights - Fundamentals/SHIFT. We’re helping nine of Aotearoa’s diverse news organisations generate more value from their readers by improving engagement and retention, as well as creating a pathway to digital subscriptions and increased advertising revenue.
Subscribing With Google
To diversify revenue streams and help news publishers improve financial sustainability beyond advertising, Subscribe with Google is a tool to identify likely subscribers and grow subscriber bases.
This simple way to subscribe to news publications and maintain access everywhere has helped two of New Zealand’s largest publishers:
Stuff, Joanna Norris, Managing Director - Stuff Masthead Publishing: “Over the past year, our partnership with Subscribe with Google has supported our digital subscriber acquisition strategy. We’ve been able to streamline our subscription journey and reduce friction, enabling more seamless, user-friendly subscription experiences across ThePost.co.nz, ThePress.co.nz, and WaikatoTimes.co.nz. Google’s technical expertise has helped us scale quickly and deliver digital growth. This collaboration accelerated our subscription growth, which is up approximately 628% year-on-year for users subscribing via the Google Play Store.”
NZME, Carolyn Luey, Chief Digital & Publishing Officer: “Subscribe with Google is available on the NZ Herald website as a quick, simple way for new subscribers to purchase the New Zealand Herald premium subscription. Funded by Google through our partnership, it was easy to implement on the site and gives us another way to make it easier for potential subscribers to pay for the content they want to read.”
Optimising for YouTube
The YouTube Audience Lab has been designed to equip small-to-medium news publishers, digital-first news channels and news creators/journalists producing public interest journalism with the information, tools and practical support to grow their audience and optimise their news content on YouTube. Facilitated by proven leaders in news programs for YouTube, Changer, this program has been offered free of charge to four NZ news organisations - The Ashburton Guardian, The Spinoff, Pacific Media Network and Pasifika TV.
Proven News Publisher Strategies
Partnering with the Financial Times Strategies, GNI rolled out three key programmes to provide business strategy support to New Zealand news organisations. Goals of these programmes were to help business leaders shape and begin to execute a compelling strategic ambition, help publishers at the beginning of their digital reader revenue journey (to identify diverse revenue models and to evolve digital businesses) and audits through the News Sustainability Project. The GNI and FT Strategies have collaborated to build a set of free tools to help publishers on their journey to long-term sustainability readiness.
Over the past 12 months, 18 New Zealand news organisations have participated in our free Google News Initiative Advertising Lab. The GA4 Accelerator Program empowered news publishers by providing data-driven tools and strategies to enhance content performance, boost subscriptions, and improve ad performance, ultimately driving business growth. In partnership with Monks, Google offered a series of five interactive webinars for 15 news publishers across New Zealand. Eligible news publishers also received free personalised one to one consultation sessions, receiving dedicated support.
With only half the year done, we’re looking forward to continuing to collaborate with Aotearoa’s news publishers to ensure they’re equipped with the tools and resources that are needed to succeed online.
