Google and ConsenSys among backers of Automattic’s Newspack

Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, is planning to develop Newspack—an open-source project to help small and medium-sized news organisations monetise their content, Automattic announced today. The project has already raised $2.4 million in funding, and amongst its contributors are Google, through the Google News Initiative ($1.2 million), The Lenfest Institute for Journalism ($400,000), and blockchain software technology company ConsenSys ($350,000). It’s not the first journalistic endeavour ConsenSys is backing either—it’s also involved in Civil Media, a “decentralised marketplace for sustainable journalism.”