Boosting Digital Transition and Innovation in Journalism with Intensive Training, Mentorship, and Funding Opportunities
The programme will:
- Include 8-month accelerator and incubator programmes
- Introduce opportunity to media that need to pilot and validate their business ideas
- Provide intensive cohort and one-on-one immersive training, mentoring and hackathons
- Include grants of up to €20,000 to news organizations
Media Innovation Europe (MIE), a multidisciplinary, multi-project programme that has funded over 50 news organizations in the past two years, is kicking off its second edition.
The programme provides business needs assessments and personalized advisory, grants, training, hackathons and mentorship to media managers journalists working in and building newsrooms that are moving ahead towards a full digital transition. The goal is to empower media outlets to navigate a changing media industry, providing tools and guidance to align their journalistic products, business structures, and means of discovery and distribution in an audience-focused and sustainable way.
MIE will continue its immersive training approach, focusing on networking-building and providing consultancies and guidance to participating newsrooms.
The first edition was launched in June 2022 to energize the European ecosystem for independent and local journalism, stimulating innovation, sustainable business models, and collaboration among media outlets.
Who is behind the programme
Led by the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), the consortium brings together the Thomson Media (TM), The Fix Foundation (TFF) and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).
The programme will continue to be co-funded by the European Union.
The programme
The MIE programme includes several projects that will leverage the strengths of its partners to mobilize networks, manage granting and mentoring programs, and support media innovation. MIE is a response to the challenging environment media operate in, including growing hostility to media freedom, lack of trust in journalism as well as the disruption of media by the digital transformation and economic threats. 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. .
Participants of all the programmes will be selected by independent juries.
Here is a list of the projects MIE will continue:
| Project | Description | Run by |
| Transition Accelerator | * 18 established news organizations* 8-month innovation accelerator with training, advisory, coaching and solutions development* grants of up to €20,000 each | IPI |
| New Media Incubator | * 15 early-stage independent news organizations* 8-month innovation incubator with training, coaching and solutions development* grants of up to €15,000 each | IPI |
| Early Stage Digital Validation | * 15 media companies will be selected* Up to €5,000 grants each* Review, design and validate digital media business plans | Thomson Media |
| Advanced Business Consultancies | * 6 independent media organizations* grants of up to €30,000 each* implementing new digital products | Thomson Media |
| Audience Engaged Journalism Grants | * 15 media outlets (two cross-border and 11 country-based)* Promotes the development of 13 investigative stories* Up to €5k grant per story. | Balkan Investigative Reporting Network |
| Journalism Innovation and Ideation Hackathons | * Two, three-day focused creative media events aimed at establishing cross-border and cross-company ties inthe media sector.* Minimum of 10 projects per hackathon | The Fix Foundation |
| Peer-to-peer journalism mentoring | * A project that will match journalists and newsrooms with mentors that will help with ideation and feedback around news products, technologies and business models | IPI |
Press contacts
IPI: Ryan Powell, rpowell@ipi.media
Thomson Media: Davor Marko, davorm@thomsonfoundation.org
The Fix Foundation: Daryna Shevchenko, shevchenko.mdf@gmail.com
BIRN Network: Gentiana Murati, gentiana.murati@birnnetwork.org
