Our history
Eight years of trying things.
Ping started as a research project inside a university and became an independent company because it had to. Some of what follows worked. Some of it did not, and those entries stay in.
Timeline
2018
The Independent Community News Network, via Cardiff University, secures development funding from Google's Digital News Initiative. It funds research into how independent publishers might reach wider audiences.
Mar 2020
Ping secures funding from Nesta's Future News Fund to build Ping!-Trends, identifying trending stories by tag.
Jan 2021
ICNN begins negotiating with Facebook, now Meta, to part-fund new features. After a risk review, Cardiff University cannot accept the money. That is the moment Ping becomes its own organisation, on the view that independence serves the sector better in the long run.
May 2021
Value My News meets the terms of the Google DNI funding and renames itself Ping!.
Sep 2021
Ping News incorporates as a community interest company, focused entirely on the independent community news sector. Matt Abbott and Sam Hearn appointed directors.
Feb 2022
Meta funds Ping!-Feed, a twice-daily feed of hyperlocal content delivered to local and regional news desks, and Ping!-Submission for publishers not using the WordPress plugin.
Jul 2022
Launch of the Welsh Public Interest Journalism Fund, using Welsh Government money from the Co-operation Agreement. Grants to established outlets, seed funding for new publishers, and an emergency fund.
Aug 2022
Google provides further funding to turn Ping! into a commercially viable business with a fair distribution model for contributors.
Apr 2023
Ping negotiates a deal with Google News to deliver Showcase to forty-five independent titles, and manages and distributes the monthly income to them.
The Welsh Public Interest Journalism Accelerator launches, continuing the earlier fund for established outlets. Ping also delivers funding for the Welsh Government's Senedd Reporter, a role modelled on the BBC's local democracy scheme.
Jul 2023
Matt Abbott joins full time, making Ping genuinely independent with a dedicated team. Shortlisted for Start-up Business of the Year and Tech and Innovation Business Leader.
The free trial opens. Nearly 3,000 stories are uploaded over two months.
Sep 2023
The trial ends with more than 300 stories picked up in local and regional press, including national coverage and several front pages.
Nov 2023
Ping signs a deal with Newsquest to supply hyperlocal content to its South Wales titles.
Mar 2024
Newsquest does not renew. Finding a price that works for both independents and legacy groups proves to be the problem we could not solve, and it is the beginning of the end for the syndication platform.
Apr 2024
Ping partners with Content Ignite to bring programmatic advertising to the independent sector, which becomes ads•ping.
Jun 2024
ads•ping takes on its first four independent titles, including Islandecho.co.uk and Deeside.com. The third round of Welsh Government funding goes out through the Accelerator top-up fund.
Nov 2024
A second year of Welsh Government funding for the Senedd Reporter, after the pilot year.
2025
Google News Showcase continues, now supporting more than forty independent publishers across the UK. A further Welsh Government grant continues the Accelerator.
2026
The syndication platform closes. Work begins on new routes to revenue for independent publishers, including contracts with large technology companies on AI.
Where that leaves us
Eight years of learning what pays, and what does not.
The things that worked are the things we still do. The things that did not are written down above rather than quietly removed.