Deadline: September 28, 2023.

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 International Media Support) 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. 

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

1. This 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.
2. Any incorporated legal entity can apply with a registered seat in one of the EU27 countries or teams of journalists (physical persons) having  legal residence in the EU27 (including the 9 EU outermost regions). 

BENEFITS

1. The total available amount per call to be distributed among all supported projects will be €600.000.

APPLICATION

1. Before you start, please consult the grant details where you can find the rules, eligibility and assessment criteria, timing, etc.
2. After a one-time registration with your email address, you can access our online application form. You can freely navigate through the form to see which information you need to provide in your application. This includes:

• information and documents about your organisation
• information about the intended project
• a detailed project budget, according to our budget template

You can invite multiple people to collaborate on the online draft application. The online application-in-progress can be saved and further edited at any time.

OFFICIAL LINK