Introduction: The European news media sectors play a crucial and valuable role in Europe. However, they face multiple challenges, including the digital shift, which has led to economic pressures on professional journalism. This call aims to support news media sectors that are essential for democracy and civic participation, such as local and regional media, community media, investigative journalism, and organizations delivering public interest news.

General Description: This call seeks to protect and enhance media pluralism and editorial independence at the EU level. It targets organizations with experience in media to set up cascading grants (regranting/support to third parties) to support independent media and organizations primarily active in sectors of special relevance to democracy.

Objectives:

• Increase innovation and creativity in business models, journalistic production processes, and distribution processes.
• Enhance the viability and resilience of professionally produced journalistic content.
• Foster media pluralism and editorial independence, particularly in local, regional, and community media, investigative media, or media specialized in public interest topics.
• Improve the uptake of new technologies across targeted media sectors to contribute to a diverse media landscape.

Activities

Activities 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. Sharing of best practices between operators in media markets/countries/regions with different and diverse characteristics (in terms of languages, production volumes, sizes, digitalisation levels etc.) is encouraged, to promote mutual learning. Applicants are encouraged to consider activities supporting media sectors lacking the means of adapting to the digital environment.

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.

In all cases, the choice of activities should be based on their potential to instil systemic change in the chosen subsector.

Projects must include concrete deliverables and set clear, objectively verifiable and quantifiable performance indicators for the mid-term and the end of the project. The estimated impact must be more precise than the sum of available distribution channels, and should be substantiated by a detailed outreach plan as well as proof of interest from the target groups.

Eligibility

Eligible Participants (Eligible Countries):

• Applications will only be considered eligible if their content corresponds wholly (or at least in part) to the topic description for which they are submitted.
• Applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be legal entities (public or private bodies) established in one of the eligible countries:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories).
  • Non-EU countries: listed EEA countries and countries associated with the Creative Europe Programme.

• Proposals can be submitted by individual applicants or by a consortium of at least two applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities) from eligible countries.
• The action is open to organizations active in the news media sector, including media associations, NGOs, non-profit organizations, civil society organizations, public authorities, international organizations, universities, research centers, journalistic funds, and training organizations.

Eligible Activities:

• Eligible activities are those set out in section 2 "Activities that can be funded (scope)".
• Financial support to third parties is allowed for grants and prizes under certain conditions:
  • The calls must be open, published widely, and conform to EU standards concerning transparency, equal treatment, conflict of interest, and confidentiality.
  • The calls must remain open for at least two months.
  • The outcome of the call must be published on the participants' websites, including a description of the selected projects, award dates, project durations, and final recipient legal names and countries.
  • The calls must have a clear European dimension.

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