The Google News Initiative has selected more than 450 organizations across 52 countries as recipients of its News Equity Fund.

This is the first round of funding announced as part of the News Equity Fund, which was announced in 2021. It provides financial support and opportunities to news organizations that primarily serve underrepresented communities, with a focus on helping them succeed in digital environments.

Of the new recipients, 28 are Canadian news organizations. These include Ricochet Media, Radio Cité, ByBlacks.com, Le Journal de Chambly, Weekly Bangla Mail, The Canadian Jewish News, The South Asia Journal, Bengali Times, Greek Press, Persian Mirror, Fort Frances Times and The Sask Dispatch.

The announcement of this year’s recipients comes as the Online News Act continues to make its way through parliament. The bill would allow news outlets to negotiate deals with tech companies that share news content, a response to claims from news publishers that the control major tech companies – namely, Google and Meta – have over digital ecosystems allows them to take a disproportionate amount of revenue from advertising that would otherwise go to news outlets.

The News Equity Fund is one of several initiatives Google has launched as its own response to the claims. Like other deals it has struck with publishers, exact dollar figures have been kept private, something others in the news industry have pointed to as a need for more transparency. Though the Online News Act attempts to provide more transparency, several small publishers have said it doesn’t go far enough, and have also expressed concerns that the definition of a “news business” was too limiting and could leave many excluded from its provisions.

During testimony to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage last month, Google execs expressed their own concerns about the Online News Act, namely that the definition of a news business is too broad, creating issues when it comes to content moderation and misinformation.