Activities that can be funded (scope)

CREA-CROSS-2024-JOURPART-COLLABORATIONS

NEWS – Journalism Partnerships – Collaborations

This topic seeks to help the wider European news media sector become more sustainable and resilient, including small media. Support is foreseen for collaborative projects in and between any news media (sub)sector and/or genre that aim to enhance cooperation, help media adapt to new economic and consumption realities and instil systemic change across that sector.

Projects must focus on ways to develop collaborative transformation, from a business, technological and/or content point of view. Projects can aim to develop, inter alia, better revenue and monetisation models, new approaches to audience development, community-building and marketing, development of common professional/technical standards, new types of newsrooms, syndication networks or other models to exchange content/data between news media across the EU, or provide assistance to small media organisations. Content-wise, they can aim to increase efficiency and the quality of reporting through innovative journalistic collaborations. Projects can test innovative production methods and formats, or contribute to high-quality media production standards in other collaborative ways. Projects can aim to increase exchanges of best practices among journalists and optimise workflows for those journalism genres requiring more time and resources.

Proposals may address one or more of the priorities outlined above, if relevant and based on the needs analysis. To this end, projects can include events, online trainings and workshops for media professionals, exchange programmes, mentoring schemes, mapping of best practices, sector-wide development of technical standards, development of guidelines and editorial standards, production of practical guidebooks, development and testing of platforms and technical solutions to exchange ideas and best practices, promotional activities, or other activities that aim to uphold the viability of the sector.

Financial support to third parties will be accepted in projects which foresee exchange programmes for journalists and other media professionals, support to attend trainings or events, support to journalists and media outlets for collaborative journalistic projects, support for legal advice, support for the acquisition, development or maintenance of   technical tools for collaborative journalism, support for events in these fields and/or prizes for collaboration or innovation. In such cases, applicants must define the terms under which this financial support to third parties would take place and ensure a fair and transparent process. (please also refer to Section “Eligible activities”)

CREA-CROSS-2024-JOURPART

NEWS – Journalism Partnerships – Pluralism

This topic covers media sectors that are particularly relevant for democracy. Certain sectors having an important role for democratic debate lack the means to adapt to the digital environment, and phenomena such as shrinking newsrooms or media deserts can lead to a deterioration of pluralism. Support is thus needed for them to improve their position, adapt their methods, continue providing a first-hand source of original reporting to citizens, help keep decision-makers accountable and ultimately contribute to a more diverse and independent sector. Proposals must put in place funding schemes for news media entities and independent journalism. Accompanying activities may be proposed. Applicant organisations should be in a position to set up funding schemes (support to third parties) targeting news media outlets, organisations and, if needed, professionals, and in ways that enhance pluralistic media landscapes across the European Union. Non-profit and civil society organisations are particularly encouraged to apply.

The proposed activities must focus on news media sectors of special relevance to democracy and civic participation, i.e. the role they play in enhancing democracy, shaping the public debate and bringing benefits to their audiences and communities, instead of focusing just on profit. For the purpose of this call, these sectors are in particular:

• Local and regional media
• Independent and investigative journalism
• Organisations delivering public interest news/public service journalism (such as community, legal and civic journalism and media, or news increasing transparency about the media).

Applicants must present, develop and implement funding schemes. These funding schemes shall take the form of financial support to third parties. They shall focus on activities that contribute to sustaining, improving or transforming the work of the targeted parties. Activities can consist of:

• Editorial production, coverage and innovations
• The development of governance standards and editorial oversights
• The improvement of distribution and dissemination of news
• The development and engagement of audiences
• The development or maintenance of technical tools applying to the above topics
• Training on the above topics, legal advice and sectorial events

In addition to funding schemes, accompanying activities to the fund can be proposed (e.g. development of deontological and governance standards, budgetary readiness, development of criteria and indicators framing their support, repositories of knowledge, legal advice or trainings).

Expected impact

• Increased innovation and creativity in business models, journalistic production processes and distribution processes;
• Increased interest in journalism, among various social groups, language groups and age groups;
• Increased viability of professionally produced journalistic content;

Specific for Topic 1. “Journalism Partnerships – Collaborations”:

• Increased media collaboration;
• Sector-wide networks for the exchange of best practices among news media professionals;
• Knowledge-hubs for sub-sectors around technical formats (written/online press, radio/podcasts, TV, etc.) and/or journalistic genres (data journalism, general topics, specialised journalism, etc.);
• Acquisition and improvement of professional skills by journalists as well as media business professionals.

Specific for Topic 2. “Journalism Partnerships – Pluralism”:

• Increased resilience, pluralism and editorial independence of media sectors at European level, such as local, regional and community media, investigative media or media specialised in public interest topics;
• Increased resilience of organisations active in the news media sectors and protection of the news media landscape.;
• Improved uptake of new technologies across the targeted media sectors in as much this contributes to media pluralism and a diverse media landscape;
• Fostering repositories of knowledge about media sectors delivering public interest news (e.g., by detecting areas with low provision of high-quality content and/or in which media pluralism is strained).