Two regional publishers have won funding from Google to develop new digital projects.

Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror have been awarded part of a share in €24m from the search engine company’s Digital News Initiative Innovation Fund, which has been given out among 124 projects across a total of 24 European countries.

JP will use its share of the cash to develop LaPOP, an app which detects a reader’s location and offers them the most popular stories from that area online.

Users will also be able to set their own preferences, allowing them to read articles from areas of their choice.

Trinity Mirror’s share will go towards Project Vario, which is focused on developing an alternative to promoted content links in publisher apps.

Another scheme involving the company has also won €50,000 from the bonanza.

The project – a collaboration between the University of Central Lancashire’s (UCLan) Media Innovation Studio, Trinity Mirror Regionals and innovation consultancy Thomas Buchanan – aims to explore how the news media sector could harness the “Internet of Things”.

The “Internet of Things” is a concept by which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data.

It is hoped the project will be able to find new ways of connecting with people and conveying stories.

Alison Gow, pictured above left, digital innovation editor at Trinity Mirror Regionals, said: “It’s really exciting to be involved in something that ties so closely to our values of breaking news, and local information and audience engagement.

“It’s a unique opportunity to really understand how content delivery and interaction between the worlds of media and tech and the audience can and will quickly evolve.”