Pluralistic Media for Democracy: Strengthening Europe’s Independent Media Landscape
By supporting innovation, business sustainability, and audience engagement, a second round of applications are now open for a joint initiative that aims to empower media organisations to continue their critical role in upholding democracy and fostering informed public discourse across Europe.
After a successful first application round with 93 applicants, Journalismfund Europe and IMS launch a second round of the innovative project, “Pluralistic Media for Democracy”.
The Pluralistic Media for Democracy project supports local, regional, and independent media across the EU and beyond. The initiative focuses on local and community media, investigative journalism, and public interest news through grants and capacity building.
Through strategic support in innovation, business sustainability, DEI and audience engagement, the programme will empower media organisations to continue to play their critical role in upholding democracy and fostering informed public discourse across Europe.
“If you want to strengthen democracy and re-engage people in policy-making, you need to reinforce the foundations. A bottom-up approach. That’s why we need to make smaller local media more strategic and effective.” Ides Debruyne, Managing Director, Journalismfund Europe.
The programme will provide financial support through a Media Pluralism Fund to at least 40 local, regional, community, and investigative media outlets that operate in “news deserts” or areas where media pluralism is under strain. The total amount available per call to be distributed among all supported projects is €700,000.
In addition to the funding, selected media will benefit from a tailored capacity development and mentoring programme aimed at increasing innovation and creativity in business models, content production processes and distribution processes, strengthening DEI and increasing audience reach, business viability and resilience of the targeted organisations.
Dr Clare Cook, head of journalism and media viability at IMS, said: “The precarity of journalism funding has never been worse than in these latest months with the prolific changes to international donor funding. Now more than ever we need bold ideas on how to test, iterate and learn what works for independent publishing. It is inspiring to hear how media across Europe plan to shape pluralistic media landscapes in meaningful ways.”
Applicants from the first round of applications can expect a response ultimo April.
Looking to apply?
This grant programme is open to legal entities with a registered seat in one of the EU27 countries, including Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia & Serbia.
For more information about the Media Pluralism Fund and the tailored capacity building and mentoring programme please watch our English language introductory webinar, recorded in November 2024 Introductory Webinar Pluralistic Media for Democracy | Journalismfund Europe.
A webinar in Spanish will take place on 6th March at 2 pm. Please register using this link.
Additional webinars in other languages will be announced at a later stage.
The deadline for proposals in the second round is on Thursday 12th June 2025 at 1 PM CEST. Apply here
Local and regional outlets, community media, investigative journalism, and public interest news organisations located in areas where media pluralism is strained are encouraged to apply.
The project is co-funded by the European Commission (Creative Europe) and the King Baudouin Foundation. It started on 1st October 2024 for a period of 24 months. The first call for proposals closed on 13th February 2025.
Another project called Local Media for Democracy was completed medio 2024. The 42 supported initiatives can be found here. A report with key findings and recommendations of relevance for future programming of this kind can be found here.
