Before joining Google, Alejandra Brambila worked at Reuters helping publishers across Latin America integrate the news agency’s reporting into their publications. Working with newsrooms across the region, she saw first-hand the challenges they faced in building a sustainable news business. Now she applies that insight as a member of Google’s Latin America news partnerships team, working closely with publishers to help them grow and scale their digital operations. We talked to her about the importance of balance and why everything starts with the audience.

What did you do before you came to Google?

I worked with a large news agency that has a subscription service publishers use to supplement their coverage. They have reporters all over the world, so it’s really helpful for publishers who might not have global correspondents. In my time there I worked closely with all kinds of publishers, from very traditional outlets to newer digital natives and startups.

What’s your role now?

I work with a team that provides solutions for a range of publishers across Latin America. We work with partners on growing their businesses and navigating change in the industry, and we also help them get the most out of Google’s advertising and monetization products.

What’s most challenging for publishers in the region?

From a business perspective, some of the biggest challenges are in technology and

digital transformation. Many of the media companies in this region weren’t built with tech at their core. So they’ve been adapting, but they don’t necessarily have technology strategy integrated into the decision-making process at the highest levels. In part, that leads to executional issues, but it’s also about shifting mindset.

What are some of those executional challenges?

There’s a real problem in the region with finding and retaining tech talent. I see it constantly with my partners in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico – that technology talent turns over really fast. So sometimes you have leadership knowing they need to make changes and being really eager to do it, but they don't have the structure in place to make it happen.

We always encourage partners to be realistic and start with changes they know they can execute. It’s also about having that product mindset, where you’re always thinking about improvements you can make on an ongoing basis, rather than just one-off changes.

Can you explain what you mean about transformation in general requiring a mindset shift?

For a lot of these companies, they’ve been through a lot of transition. First they had to adapt to digital advertising. Now many of them are trying to focus more on digital subscriptions, but it feels very disruptive and risky.

How do you address those kinds of concerns?

It’s really about finding that balance between advertising and subscriptions. And the publishers that have been able to do that have built a strong brand in addition to having a technology vision. It’s not enough to have a large audience. You need loyal readers coming back to your site. You also have to have the right technology in place. For example, since in Latin America we don't have the fastest devices or internet connections, content needs to be light and fast loading to maximize your ad revenue. So you need a good CMS that loads faster and indexes better.

But the businesses I see that are thriving have focused on building that audience connection, whether by having high standards for journalism or serving their community in different ways, like with events.

What other encouraging developments do you see in terms of business models?

I see more media finding different ways to reach their audiences, for example, through new verticals like education or cooking or health. There are also startups and entrepreneurs using different platforms like Substack and, of course, podcasts.

We’re also seeing more partners focused on strengthening their technology talent and their product teams. They’re working on applying that product approach and putting structures and frameworks in place to iterate and experiment. All of those things are starting to move in the right direction and that's encouraging to see.

As a former director of business strategy for The Atlantic, Eric Rosato knows a few things about building a successful news business. Now he lends his strategic acumen to thousands of news organizations across the globe for the Google News Initiative’s Digital Growth Program. We talked to Eric about the value of journalism to society and why sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is talk about it.

How did you get interested in news publishing?

There was a point where I decided if I was going to build a career in an industry, I wanted that industry to be bigger than me, the value of it to be bigger than me. That journalism has value to society, that it’s key to a functioning democracy to have an informed citizenry – that’s what motivated me, to know that this purpose is bigger than just me and my work.

What’s different about working for Google?

At Google, it's the same sense of mission, but doing it at scale. Everyday I have a moment with a publisher that reinforces that mission and that sense of purpose, and it’s not just one publisher, it’s many publishers — thousands, actually, in countries all over the world.

What is the Digital Growth Program, and what’s your role?

The Digital Growth Program, within the Google News Initiative, supports small to midsize publishers in tackling digital transformation. We offer a range of resources covering five critical areas in digital publishing: reader revenue, audience development, advertising revenue, product and data. And all of these resources we developed working with subject matter experts, associations and, of course, publishers.

My role on the team is to help ideate, launch and execute programs. I also work to better understand the impact we’re having and to see how we can improve.

What did you learn in your previous work that you apply at the Google News Initiative?

A lot of the challenges the publishers I work with now are the same challenges I faced at my last job, albeit at a different scale. At the heart is the same question: “We need to reach different audiences. How, from a business perspective and from an editorial perspective, are we going to do that?”

Two practices that are equally valuable for publications at any scale are first, to experiment and not be too precious. Your business will be better off if you try new approaches that allow you to learn from failure and build on success. The second is to work at identifying what your audience wants and how they want to interact with your brand.

There’s a lot of focus in the industry right now on deeper audience relationships. How does that benefit smaller and local publications?

I think small publishers serving local communities are well positioned to earn audience trust because they know what their communities need. And there’s value in those relationships.

A lot of publishers get hung up on the fact that they don't have a national audience to entice advertisers. One of the biggest mindset shifts that we've encouraged publishers to make is to believe that their audiences, what they do in their communities and the journalism they produce have real value to advertisers. That if they have that deep community relationship, they can sell on that value versus just selling on reach.

Are there any promising developments you see across the news industry?

The discourse around news has been difficult to navigate over the past few years. But the benefit is there has been a heightened focus on the value of news and of a healthy, diverse news ecosystem. And that has resulted in a lot of collaboration. For example, I think there's been a real sense of the pandemic as a common enemy, and publishers have banded together to try to combat that enemy. Seeing publishers work together, crowdsourcing and sharing solutions and best practices to help each other through this moment is incredibly rewarding.

How important is it for publishers to have that kind of peer support?

We’re told time and again by the publishers we engage with that hearing from their peers is a top need. Anytime we introduce an idea, the first questions are, “Has someone else done this? What worked and what didn't work? Can I do that for my publication?” So it’s really a priority for us to provide benchmarks and publisher examples. And in our Lab programs, we want to make sure that we create a strong sense of cohort so publishers keep talking to each other. That’s part of the value of the GNI – to bring publishers together and create a kind of town square where those conversations can happen.

As a former director of business strategy for The Atlantic, Eric Rosato knows a few things about building a successful news business. Now he lends his strategic acumen to thousands of news organizations across the globe for the Google News Initiative’s Digital Growth Program. We talked to Eric about the value of journalism to society and why sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is talk about it.

How did you get interested in news publishing?

There was a point where I decided if I was going to build a career in an industry, I wanted that industry to be bigger than me, the value of it to be bigger than me. That journalism has value to society, that it’s key to a functioning democracy to have an informed citizenry – that’s what motivated me, to know that this purpose is bigger than just me and my work.

What’s different about working for Google?

At Google, it's the same sense of mission, but doing it at scale. Everyday I have a moment with a publisher that reinforces that mission and that sense of purpose, and it’s not just one publisher, it’s many publishers — thousands, actually, in countries all over the world.

What is the Digital Growth Program, and what’s your role?

The Digital Growth Program, within the Google News Initiative, supports small to midsize publishers in tackling digital transformation. We offer a range of resources covering five critical areas in digital publishing: reader revenue, audience development, advertising revenue, product and data. And all of these resources we developed working with subject matter experts, associations and, of course, publishers.

My role on the team is to help ideate, launch and execute programs. I also work to better understand the impact we’re having and to see how we can improve.

What did you learn in your previous work that you apply at the Google News Initiative?

A lot of the challenges the publishers I work with now are the same challenges I faced at my last job, albeit at a different scale. At the heart is the same question: “We need to reach different audiences. How, from a business perspective and from an editorial perspective, are we going to do that?”

Two practices that are equally valuable for publications at any scale are first, to experiment and not be too precious. Your business will be better off if you try new approaches that allow you to learn from failure and build on success. The second is to work at identifying what your audience wants and how they want to interact with your brand.

There’s a lot of focus in the industry right now on deeper audience relationships. How does that benefit smaller and local publications?

I think small publishers serving local communities are well positioned to earn audience trust because they know what their communities need. And there’s value in those relationships.

A lot of publishers get hung up on the fact that they don't have a national audience to entice advertisers. One of the biggest mindset shifts that we've encouraged publishers to make is to believe that their audiences, what they do in their communities and the journalism they produce have real value to advertisers. That if they have that deep community relationship, they can sell on that value versus just selling on reach.

Are there any promising developments you see across the news industry?

The discourse around news has been difficult to navigate over the past few years. But the benefit is there has been a heightened focus on the value of news and of a healthy, diverse news ecosystem. And that has resulted in a lot of collaboration. For example, I think there's been a real sense of the pandemic as a common enemy, and publishers have banded together to try to combat that enemy. Seeing publishers work together, crowdsourcing and sharing solutions and best practices to help each other through this moment is incredibly rewarding.

How important is it for publishers to have that kind of peer support?

We’re told time and again by the publishers we engage with that hearing from their peers is a top need. Anytime we introduce an idea, the first questions are, “Has someone else done this? What worked and what didn't work? Can I do that for my publication?” So it’s really a priority for us to provide benchmarks and publisher examples. And in our Lab programs, we want to make sure that we create a strong sense of cohort so publishers keep talking to each other. That’s part of the value of the GNI – to bring publishers together and create a kind of town square where those conversations can happen.