Local Media for Democracy

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 and the King Baudouin Foundation.

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.

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For who

Local News Outlets or Teams of Journalists

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.

How much

€600.000

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

The programme is supported by the European Commission and the King Baudouin Foundation.

Next deadline

This programme is closed

For this grant programme there were 2 application rounds scheduled over a period of 6 months (2023).

  • The first application deadline was on Thursday 25 May 2023, 12 pm CEST
  • The second application deadline was on Thursday 28 September 2023, 1 pm CEST

How to apply?

  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.

Go to the application form

Need help?

Take a look at our FAQ page. Next, we're always more than happy to discuss your project ideas or to answer any questions you might have about your application. Therefore, please don't hesitate to contact us via phone or email us at desert@journalismfund.eu. We're also happy to speak with you via a video call, so feel free to make an appointment! Check out our pre-application session schedules and make a reservation now!

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