Israel Today website won award after presenting a plan for offering benefits and discounts to regular users on the site • Editor-in-chief Boaz Bismuth: "The future is in digital"

• Google // Photo: Reuters

"Israel Today" is one of the winners of the Google News Innovation Challenge for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Google search giant declared. Along with "Israel Today", the innovation challenge in Israel won "Haaretz", Ynet, and the startup Anyclip.

Additional winners from other countries were selected from a total of 527 bids submitted in 35 countries.

"The future is in digital. We are proud to have chosen Israel Today and expressed Google's confidence in innovation in our newspaper," said Boaz Bismuth, Editor-in-Chief of Israel Today.

The winning offer of "Israel Today" presents a plan for offering benefits and discounts to regular users on the site. "We will create value for readers as well as advertisers. Readers will receive significant benefits for the products they love, and advertisers will gain access to a segmented audience," noted Amir Finkelstein, CEO of "Israel Today."

As part of the Google News Initiative, which debuted in 2018, the company pledged to invest $ 300 million over three years in journalism projects.

"Finding new and meaningful ways to generate readers' activity is a topic that engages news organizations of all sizes. The Google News Initiative's challenge in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa has added many approaches to addressing the issue," wrote Sarah Hartley, Google's communications manager for the Innovation Challenge.

"Israel Today" is the fastest growing site in Israel.

In 2019, site browsing grew by 50 percent, and rapid growth continued into 2020.

The Israel Today website updates its readers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through a team of editors and editors. The site works in full collaboration with the print newspaper, and its writings convey content to both platforms.