By: Ilana Siyance
Complaints that Alphabet Inc.’s Google News and other digital platforms don’t properly reward publishers’ work, and can reduce emphasis on articles from certain sites, has prompted News Corp to try to compete.
News Corp is working on a news-aggregation service which will aim to address those issues, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
News Corp owns the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Barron’s weekly financial magazine, the Marketwatch website , and a score of other news outlets. The New York City-based mass media conglomerate was originally founded by Rupert Murdoch, and is now traded publicly on the NASDAQ. Even though News Corp has plenty of its own news sources, it’s news-aggregation platform will also link to countless outside outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post and NBC.
It has created a service, presently named Knewz.com, which, as per a source familiar with the project, will draw from hundreds of news sources and link directly to publishers’ sites,
Knewz is expected to be a website and a mobile app.
A release date has not yet been set, and the company has not officially commented. According to the source, however, an early version is being tested by some of the company’s execs, and the app may be rolled out later this year. The project will reportedly give exposure to smaller outlets that News Corp executives feel have often been demoted in Google’s search results as well as on Facebook’s social feed. Deserving news sources that are progressive or conservative will be given equal weight regardless of politics. Publishers with conservative audiences such as the Daily Wire, the Daily Caller, the Washington Free Beacon and the Washington Examiner will be included.
Further, the company source says that Knewz will not take any portion of the advertising that publishers generate, as reported by Bloomberg News. Part of the goal is to help the struggling industry. Publishers have endured the virtual wipeout of print-media advertising, and now they labor to keep their online ad dollars.
The Knewz, which currently shares its name with a polka band in Buffalo, New York, has received some negative attention for its name and may still opt to change its title. A journalist from NBC was quick to downplay News Corp’s launch of Knewz. “NBC News is America’s most trusted collection of news brands,” NBC News’ Chris Berend said. “We have never heard of ‘Knewz’ and do not plan on participating in a platform with that name.”
