At MetroVaartha.com, we strongly believe in the power of local languages to forge deep connections with our audience. Participating in the 2023 Google News Initiative (GNI) Indian Languages Program has significantly advanced our mission to deliver high-quality journalism to a wider Indian audience.

As a regional publisher in Malayalam, we struggled to reach our full potential in a digital landscape dominated by English content. The GNI Indian Languages Program offered crucial resources and support to help us overcome these challenges.

The program's benefits have been transformative for our operations:

• GNI workshops provided our team with up-to-date digital publishing skills, covering video optimization, Google Analytics 4, and improving website performance

• we received native Android and iOS apps to provide better service to our loyal audience.

The impact of the GNI Indian Languages Program has been remarkable:

• We experienced a surge in website traffic, with more users consuming content in their preferred Indian languages.

• User engagement has risen, with readers spending more time on our site and interacting with our content.

• Digital monetization strategies have helped grow our advertising revenue.

Google has initiated the GNI Indian Languages Program 2024, accepting applications until June 20, 2024. This program aims to assist publishers in nine Indian languages by offering tools and strategies for audience expansion, real-time insights, optimizing ad revenue, and creating content. Interested publishers can apply here.