Google’s chief emissary to the news business is stepping down — and looking back

Richard Gingras, Google’s longtime global vice president for news — one of the most influential people in journalism in the last decade — announced last week that he was retiring from the company. In an email to colleagues titled “Onward, the next chapter,” Gingras said a focus of his future work would be, “How can we bring people together?”

Although he is most famous for his time at Google, his previous jobs in media and tech companies show he has often been ahead of the curve. In 1979, Gingras ran a test for KCET-TV on “broadcast teletext” that provided a prescient look at what the internet and Google would eventually provide. The segment looks a little silly now, but it shows his smart sense of where technology was headed.

At Google, Gingras oversaw news products and served as the tech giant’s liaison with media companies. He directed how Google displayed news in search results and other products. He explained the company’s business to skeptical news executives and responded to their concerns that Google was stealing their revenue. He also pushed them to modernize their digital publishing.

Under his direction, the company gave grants and provided training to journalists and researchers. (Disclosure: The Duke Reporters’ Lab, which I direct, received some of those grants to support fact-checkers.) But the money didn’t stop news executives from grousing that Google was hurting their business. And now, with AI taking over search results, publishers have a new worry: that Google users won’t click through to their articles.

A few years ago, Gingras stepped back into a smaller role as “senior advisor, news.” Last week’s announcement was not a surprise, but it appears so far that no one in the company has taken on the same high-visibility role that Gingras had. So at a time when AI is transforming Google and its products, his departure could be as much a loss for the media industry as it is for the company.

Before [Village Media CEO Jeff Elgie] founded Village and its first property up in Ontario, he ran a digital ad agency. So he was very sophisticated in understanding digital advertising and local advertising. But what intrigues me about the model is this: It really starts with the mission. How do we create the fabric for the community that allows them to get the information they need and engage with each other and, in so doing, strengthen the communities that Village serves? That’s a powerful statement.

In fact, Village [doesn’t see itself] as just a news site. It’s a community impact platform. How do we engage? One key element is to start with the content mix. If you do research on a community’s information needs — and by the way, I generally feel that news organizations need to do more real, thorough research about the markets they’re looking to serve — what you find is that people’s information needs are, first of all, highly proportionate to physical proximity. I want to know what’s going on in my community, in my neighborhood. Next, the city; next, the state; and so on.

Those information needs are far beyond accountability journalism, which is absolutely critical. But it also means what’s going on in the community park this weekend. What about local sports? How about the potholes on Main Street? And by the way, that information will drive far more engagement than the accountability journalism. Obituaries will gain more engagement than the accountability journalism. That’s a powerful fact.

The key thing about Village from a business model perspective is it’s 80% local, direct-sold advertising, no paywalls. So you’re reaching deep into the community. In some of their markets, 25% of the community is engaging with them at least three times a week. That’s a powerful statement.

On bias and fact-based journalism