Media Innovation Europe (MIE), a consortium dedicated to strengthening independent journalism across Europe, is proud to announce the launch of its third edition.
Since 2022, MIE has distributed more than €1.2 million in grants to well over 100 independent media organisations, alongside countless hours of advisory support, providing the networks, resources, expertise, and tools to assert their own future and to sustain independence against economic and political pressures. The MIE consortium works with local news outlets, startup media, news creators, and established media in transition across Europe, with a focus on contexts where media freedoms are under significant pressure.
The consortium is guided by its sustained commitment to media innovation. The practice of innovation leverages creativity and inspires media builders to establish a vision of what’s possible — while helping chart a strategy for preserving editorial independence and resilience.
Media innovation is critical for organisations under a mix of pressures — from responding to changing consumer behaviour to evolving monetisation possibilities and political threat and capture. The MIE consortium responds to these challenges in several ways: building peer-led networks of media across Europe, convening interdisciplinary dialogue on the sector’s future, workshopping AI, technology, and revenue solutions unique to Europe’s varied markets, and offering the support infrastructure media organisations need to sustain themselves.
“For Thomson, the continuation is exciting because it puts even more focus on talent by finding promising innovators and helping them shape their ideas. Innovation in Europe is exciting because the media landscape is changing fast, which forces all of us to think differently, step outside our comfort zones, and test new products, engagement approaches and revenue models. MIE creates exactly that kind of space: flexible, practical and open to learning, testing, and even failing. That is often where the best ideas start.” – Davor Marko, Central and SEE programme manager, Thomson Media.
One lesson the consortium learned in four years of MIE: successful publishers build a mix of adaptation, focus, and space for creativity into their management and success metrics. In practice, this leads to media identifying user needs and serving them with smart product development loops, testing, iterating, identifying sources of value that drive revenue, and collaborating as a sector to drive resilience. MIE was built on the premise that this capacity can be convened, funded, and adopted.
“Each year, the value of collaboration in supporting independent media becomes clearer. In four years, Media Innovation Europe has built a community of practice that reflects this shared, hopeful vision for independent media in Europe. We all know change is constant in this sector and this community is our compass for ideating opportunities, navigating disruptions, and creating viable alternatives.” – Ryan Powell, Head of innovation and media business, IPI.
The third edition sharpens that model. It expands the network effect among the programme’s growing alumni community, increases the size of its grants, deepens coaching and access to expertise for organisations in the most constrained environments, and expands its impact tracking model designed around the indicators relevant across Europe’s varied media markets.
Led by the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), the consortium brings together Thomson Media (TM), the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), and The Fix Foundation (TFF).
Overview of Activities:
- Transition Accelerator for established media investing in transition, reinventing their revenue, technology and audience strategy.
- New Media Incubator for startup newsrooms building journalism responsive to undiscovered audiences and niches in agile ways.
- Two Media Innovation Festivals — check out the 2026 edition!
- Digital Validation to refine and test ideas
- Business Innovation Synergizer to support the implementation of validated ideas and business strategies
- Audience-Engaged Journalism Grants to seamlessly integrate audience engagement strategies into the newsrooms’ editorial practices
- Two Hackathons to develop innovative storytelling formats and revenue models.
- Media Innovator’s Mentorship to expand peer-to-peer exchange.
Editorial independence requires a mix of revenue, trust from a diversity of audiences, and the freedom to report and publish without interference. The role of the Media Innovation Europe consortium is to create space and provide resources to help ensure this is possible. Each partner brings a deep understanding of the needs and challenges facing European media today, alongside proven strategies to respond and invest in developing successful independent news products. The growing demand for innovation support work is evidence of both how much is changing and how intent media across Europe are to adopt innovation into their work.
Media Innovation Europe programme (MIE), made possible with the support of the European Union.
