This media funding scheme injects €1,200,000 financial support to local, regional and community media who are struggling to serve the public interest in places where access to information has significantly decreased. The selected media will also receive technical and mentorship support (managed by IMS) to improve their organisational capacity, journalism innovation and business sustainability. This is part of a larger programme supported by the European Commission.
These news desert areas can be a geographic or administrative area, or a social community, where it is difficult or impossible to access reliable, diverse and independent local, regional and community media. In other words, news deserts can emerge not only where there are no media outlets, but also where there are newsrooms captured by economic, political or other interests.
The media selected for this scheme will also receive technical and strategic mentorship support from media experts to improve journalism innovation, organisational capacity and business sustainability, managed by International Media Support (IMS).
More info and applications
If you want to apply or find out more about the eligibility and assessment criteria, timing, jury and grant conditions. All terms and conditions are available on our application website. To stay informed, subscribe to our newsletter (see at bottom of this page).
For Who
Local News Outlets or Teams of JournalistsThis grant programme is open to legal entities with a registered seat in one of the EU27 countries or teams of journalists (physical persons) having their legal residence in the EU27.
How Much
€600,000The total available amount per call to be distributed among all supported projects will be €600,000.
The programme is supported by the European Commission.
