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News Corp’s Knewz App Aims to Protect Publishers From Google

News Corp.’s Knewz App Aims to Protect Publishers From Google

(Bloomberg) -- In their attempts to keep up with the times, media companies have trotted out some offbeat brands in recent years, including Tronc, Oath and Refinitiv.

Now News Corp. is giving it a try. The company has created an app called Knewz that will draw from hundreds of news sources and link directly to publishers’ sites, according to the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by News Corp. (The app is only “currently” called Knewz, the Journal says, so the name could change.)

The idea is to provide an alternative to Google and other online platforms that aggregate news stories, while offering more of a reward to publishers. Knewz won’t just draw on News Corp. properties. It will link to outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post and NBC, as well as the Wall Street Journal, the newspaper reported. Knewz also won’t take a cut of any advertising that publishers generate.

The industry could use some help. After watching print-media advertising evaporate, publishers have struggled to hold on to ad dollars that have shifted online.

Still, the name drew some ribbing online, particularly from journalists themselves. NBC News’ Chris Berend told NBC media reporter Dylan Byers that he hadn’t even heard the Knewz moniker -- despite the news organization being mentioned in the Wall Street Journal story.

NBC confirmed this with Bloomberg News.

“NBC News is America’s most trusted collection of news brands,” Berend said. “We have never heard of ‘Knewz’ and do not plan on participating in a platform with that name.”

Some also noted that The Knewz is the name of a polka band in Buffalo, New York.

News Corp. declined to comment. The polka band, meanwhile, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nick Turner in Los Angeles at nturner7@bloomberg.net;Gerry Smith in New York at gsmith233@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III

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