Google is giving money to U.S. newspaper chain McClatchy, which will pick three cities with a population under 500,000 and launch digital-only news outlets. Google intends to spend “many millions of dollars” on the program and aims to eventually launch dozens of outlets in the U.S. and other countries, said Richard Gingras, its vice-president of news. (Axios)

Talking point: The news comes one day after Apple announced Apple News Plus, a subscription-based news service that has split major industry players (The Wall Street Journal and the Toronto Star are on board; The New York Times and Postmedia haven’t signed up). Google is taking a less controversial but also less ambitious approach. By focusing on markets with fewer than 500,000 people, Google is less likely to get the kind of reach that Apple will with major papers. That said, this play could also give Google valuable data on underserved areas where it has less information than in major metropolitan centres.