The Baltimore Sun chosen to participate in Google News Initiative Subscriptions Lab

The Baltimore Sun has been named one of 10 newsrooms selected to take part in a Google initiative aimed at developing a sustainable business model for newspapers across North America through digital subscriptions.

Google News Initiative’s Subscriptions Labs is a six-month experience during which newsrooms, including The Sun, will undergo a mix of quantitative and qualitative research looking for ways to better understand the news market and reader willingness to pay, according to a news release.

Newspapers across the country have struggled to survive since the industry’s revenue model collapsed following the advent of the internet.

“We started this program to go deep with a group of partners to accelerate this transformation and … scale it to the rest of the industry, one publisher at a time,” said Google representative Ben Monnie in the release.

In addition to the Google News Initiative, the project is a collaboration between Local Media Association and FTI Consulting, the latter of which will perform a full diagnostic evaluation of each publication to study performance and short- and long-term opportunities, the release states.

The newspapers selected represent a cross-section of the local news industry, with a mix of both chain-owned and independent community and metro titles, according to the release.

“We invited 21 newspapers that were having success with digital subscriptions to apply for this unique opportunity,” said Local Media Association President Nancy Lane. “The judges chose ten that came with a willingness to experiment and a commitment from the highest levels in their company. We’re excited to work with this cohort on strategies that can change the trajectory of the newspaper industry.”

Other newspapers selected to participate include El Nuevo Día, The Buffalo News, The Columbus Dispatch, The Houston Chronicle, The Idaho Press, The Portland Press Herald, The Post and Courier (South Carolina), The Southeast Missourian and The Toronto Star.