Google announced yesterday that it has given a $2 million grant to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to spur innovation in digital journalism and will award another $3 million to journalism projects outside the U.S.

The combined $5 million is intended “to benefit news publishers of all sizes,” according to the company.

Of the $2 million awarded to the Knight Foundation, $1 million is earmarked for the Knight News Challenge which has spawned such projects as DocumentCloud.