Johnston Press digital awarded funding from Google innovation initiative

These grants will support two projects, focused on maximising the editorial and commercial digital proposition, while strengthening engagement with readers through harnessing data.

The first project, which received six-figure funding, will focus on creating deeper data-driven consumer profiles relating to users’ attitudes, values and aspirations with a view to gaining greater insights into content preferences, purchasing decisions and brand relevance.

The second, a prototype fund, will explore a location-based offers service.

This investment from Google coincides with Johnston Press’ significant digital audience growth in 2017, with total page views across the JP network set to exceed 1 billion this year.

Johnston Press recently achieved record traffic, as announced in its Q3 trading update, led by the Yorkshire Evening Post growing 64% year-on-year and the Sheffield Star, whose web traffic was up 50% in the last year.

Traffic on inews.co.uk has surged in 2017 to 2 million uniques from a standing start, with Johnston Press creating a digital offering upon acquiring the i newspaper in spring 2016.

2018 will see further investment in inews.co.uk, and across Johnston Press, as it invests in three new teams of digital journalists, video and data experts in London, Leeds and Edinburgh, as well as digital commercial specialists across its markets in the UK.

Jeff Moriarty, Chief Product and Publishing Officer, said: “Ou