Journalism Partnerships - 7 Projects Selected

In June 2021, the Commission launched its first yearly call for proposals for journalism partnerships under Creative Europe, as part of the NEWS initiative in the Commission’s Media and Audiovisual Action Plan.

Seven projects have been selected from across Europe. Applicants could propose multiple activities, such as the development of common business and editorial standards, testing of new types of newsrooms and new formats, or training programmes.

All projects will receive 80% EU co-financing during two years. Their editorial independence is guaranteed within the grant agreements.

The projects listed below have already started. The remaining grant agreements for the other projects are currently being concluded.

News Journalism Projects in Progress

Cross-Border Local

Start: 1 March 2022 |EU support: €1,095,998

Cross-Border Local aims to stimulate the production of cross-border local investigative journalism across Europe, and make local news media in Europe more resilient. The project is coordinated by Journalismfund.eu (BE) and involves the European Federation of Journalists (BE), the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (LV) and Transitions (CZ). The project will support approx. 60 collaborations (€600.000 foreseen), provide mentoring to selected projects, train journalists (on investigative journalism, safety and risk assessment) and provide a management training for local media outlet managers.

Stars4media NEWS

Start: 1 Feb 2022 | EU support: €2,386,403

Stars4Media NEWS aims to stimulate new business models and create innovative newsrooms to help Europe’s news media sector become more resilient. It will provide grants and coaching to at least 15 cross-border media projects (€1.320.000 foreseen). Following an open call, an independent jury will first shortlist approx. 15 projects to receive coaching and seed funding. Subsequently, selected projects will scale-up with larger grants. Each collaborative project will include at least two media organisations from two countries. The project is coordinated by the Free University of Brussels (BE) and involves Euractiv Foundation (BE), WAN-IFRA (FR) and the European Journalism Centre (NL). It builds on two earlier editions of Stars4media.

Pix.T for News & Photojournalism

Start: 1 April 2022EU support: €732,137

Pix.T aims to address challenges facing photo journalists, including shrinking revenues, copyright violations and outdated licensing models. Building on two years of research and collaboration, it will roll out a blockchain-powered protocol and platform to certify, sell and distribute photographs online. The project is coordinated by Worldcrunch (FR) and involves Photomakers (IT), Noor foundation (NL), Profimedia (CZ), Solwee (CZ), CTK (CZ) and PAP (PL).

The Circle: a European network of media hubs

Start: 1 April 2022EU support: €675,298

The Circle aims to create 10 media knowledge & production hubs in European cities outside of capital cities, gathering creatives, journalists and media entrepreneurs, to build bridges between legacy media and millennial-led media organisations and to explore new digital formats. Participants will map the media landscape in their city during one week and then set up a tailored hub according to the local media production needs. Hubs will create a community platform, share knowledge and information with each other, monitor issues and developments in other cities and countries, and organise events and media partnerships. The project is coordinated by Are We Europe (NL) and involves Arty Farty (FR), Hostwriter (DE) and n-ost (DE).

2022 call for proposals for Journalism Partnerships

The 2022 call for proposals for Journalism Partnerships has been published with a deadline of 7th September 2022 for projects that will start in early 2023. A webinar for potential applicants will take place on Wednesday 6 April (11h-13h CEST) – login details and recordings will be available here.