Google is reportedly developing a new platform that will allow anyone to publish news stories — an apparent attempt to make its overall news services portfolio more robust.
The tool known as Bulletin, which would function like an app, could help cultivate citizen journalists who post hyperlocal content about what they see going on around them, according to Slate, which first reported the story.
Since the details are sparse, it’s not exactly clear what the standards for publishing will be, a likely concern for many given the increased skepticism of news stories considered to be fake or misleading.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
But the overall goal seems to be fostering news reporting in local communities and then making the content available on Google searches. That could boost Google’s influence in the news and journalism industry, an area where many are already complaining about Google’s (and Facebook’s) disproportionate power.
Magazine mogul Tina Brown, for example, says she is so irritated and disappointed with how Facebook and Google reportedly hog advertising revenue, she proposed that the two massive companies create a super-fund for traditional media.
The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and a large coalition of publications have also banded together to petition federal lawmakers to provide them an exemption from antitrust regulations, which would presumably give them a leg up in collective negotiations with Google and Facebook.
Google did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment in time of publication.
This report, by Eric Lieberman, was cross posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
