Al Jazeera announces strategic partnership with Google

Al Jazeera and Google today announced a global partnership that brings the best of Google technology solutions to the broadcaster.  Al Jazeera’s commitment to promote innovation in digital journalism positions them amongst Google’s top broadcast partners in the Emerging Markets region.  Google's goal is to encourage a more sustainable news ecosystem through technology and innovation.  

Al Jazeera already works closely with Google: dedicated content reaches over 2 million subscribers through Al Jazeera’s YouTube channels, Google Newsstand helps to widen distribution, investment in and optimisations for mobile has led to mobile users now making up over 70% of the audience and across all channels and the DoubleClick platform efficiently monetizes content (see case study here).  With digital transformation central to Al Jazeera, the aim of the partnership is to help cement Al Jazeera’s position as a digital-first broadcaster and accelerate its growth through use of Google technology. This partnership focuses on several key areas, namely: to attract and retain audiences, build great products for video and mobile, maximise advertising revenues, and upskill journalists with digital skills. The two companies plan to allocate significant resources into the partnership.

“We are delighted to partner with the Al Jazeera Media Network to bring the best of Google to the company.  The partnership covers a number of different areas such as monetization solutions, distribution platforms like DoubleClick, YouTube, Cloud as well as digital tools training” said Alfonso De Gaetano, Director of Global Partnerships - Emerging Markets at Google.

“Our commitment to our users has always compelled us to seek out and leverage the best technology platforms in the world and Google’s proven track record of delivering make them the ideal partner for Al Jazeera Media Network.  We greatly look forward to this partnership with Google as we continue to create exceptional value for our users.” said Abdulla Al Najjar, Executive Director, Global Brand & Communications.