Google Announces New YouTube Vlogger Program and Prizes

Last year Google introduced its designed to encourage new and interesting content creation on YouTube. Now Google is taking the program in a new direction and looking for the next crop of talented online commentors. Could this be Google's stealth approach to finding its seemingly inevitable video news show anchors?

The new program is called Next Vlogger and it asks applicants to sit in front of a camera and share their takes on a wide range of topics. If selected, grant winners will receive $5,000 worth of video equipment, as well as $10,000 worth of Google Display Network advertising for their YouTube channel. After selection, the winners will participate in a 12-week long series of Google workshops via Google+ Hangout, and will also be asked to complete video homework assignments. Some of those assignments will be submitted to program mentor and popular vlogger iJustine (Justine Ezarik). The contest, which is limited to English-speaking entrants, is open to applicants from the U.S., Australia, Canada, the U.K., Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and even India.

What makes this new initiative seem like a news anchor recruiting effort are the apparently contradictory directives of the contest. Applicants are asked to submit videos commenting on "accounts of political struggle in the Middle East to fan reactions of newly released music videos to testaments of personal discovery," but if selected for the program's battery of video assignments, participants are told in the program guidelines that "Video Assignments may not contain, as determined by Google, any content that… promotes any particular political agenda or message…"

A Google spokesman said Friday that the program still encourages vloggers of a political bent to apply.

Anyone familiar with the format knows that vloggers on YouTube are usually rather opinionated, so if the message here is to comment on politically charged issues, yet somehow avoid promoting a particular political view, that would indicate that a more news anchor/commentator approach is desired by the selectors at Google.

Whether or not the program ultimately gives rise the next crop of online news anchors, for its part Google says the program is only "designed to help the selected participants cultivate their skills on the YouTube platform by providing them with education and resources…" If you think you have what it takes to join Google's elite team of vloggers, the application deadline for the program ends April 18.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 5:24 PM on Friday, March 30 with a statement from Google.