Google launches curated news feed service in the UK

Google has begun rolling out its News Showcase tool – which offers personalised news content to users – in the UK.

The tech giant has signed up more than 120 national and local publications in the UK, who Google are paying to licence their content.

Appearing as a new feed within Google News and Discover, it will include input from the likes of Archant, DC Thomson, Evening Standard, The Financial Times, Iliffe Media, The Independent, Midland News Association, New Statesman, Newsquest, JPI Media, Reach, The Telegraph and Reuters.

The feature will allow users to personalise the feed by choosing which publishers to follow, while also being recommended others by Google.

It has previously been rolled out in a number of other countries around the world.

The launch comes as news publishers have struggled to generate advertising revenue during the internet age in the face of dominant tech giants.

It also follows the introduction of a similar product from Facebook last month.

Google’s UK and Ireland managing director and vice president, Ronan Harris, said the feature would allow UK publishers to reach new readers and showcase their work in new ways.

“News Showcase content from our publisher partners will automatically start to appear in panels in Google News and Discover, and direct readers to the full article on the publisher’s site,” he said.

“People will see panels from publishers they follow in their personalised feeds and they might also see panels from publishers they’re less familiar with, presented as suggestions in the Google News ‘For You’ feed and inside Newsstand, the discovery area of Google News.

“Panels are already appearing in Google News on Android, iOS, and the mobile web, and in Discover on iOS, and will start appearing in other versions of these products soon.

“With News Showcase panels, editors at news organisations can help explain complicated news topics and bring context to readers looking to understand more. Panels on News Showcase display an enhanced view of an article or articles, giving participating publishers more ways to bring important news to readers and explain it in their own voice, along with more direct control of presentation and branding, and direct the reader through to their websites.”