Journalism Funders Forum spotlights the Journalism Value Project

This summer, the work of the Journalism Value Project (JVP) has been spotlighted by the Journalism Funders Forum (JFF), in the article A Blueprint for a Sustainable Media Ecosystem: Lessons from the Journalism Value Project.

Funders interact with huge numbers of applications, reports, and initiatives every year. So it’s exciting for us to see JFF finding value in this work, signaling the significance of what the project partners have produced.

The Journalism Value Project has brought together in-depth mapping of Europe’s independent media ecosystem, a huge variety of interviews with media leaders in the Loop podcast, and peer-learning sessions, to distill and analyse the many lessons independent journalism teams in Europe have had to learn to survive over the last decade or more. We feel our our findings are a comprehensive overview of what is both urgent and possible, presented in the whitepaper, and we’re glad to get feedback from funders as to the value and clarity of the insights we’ve uncovered.

What we found, from the research we did, is that one-off project grants shouldn’t stand alone, and that there are systemic challenges that require a comprehensive approach. Funders are an important part of this, and the JVP findings suggest they can help the industry thrive by providing:

• Core, multi-year support to help organisations build beyond non-profit ‘survival’ mode
• Investment in skills and infrastructure, such as CRM systems, newsletters, or business management training
• Policy advocacy backing, e.g. ensuring journalists are shielded from SLAPPs

We can see that funders are listening, and increasingly taking the initiative to work in this way, alongside remaining connected to industry advocates consistently updating this kind of research.

Journalists and media fundraisers can also use the JVP publications as tools when interacting with funders: to benchmark their practices, to make stronger cases in grant applications, and to push for business training and infrastructure support alongside editorial funding. The JVP findings can strengthen your case to funders, showing how your outlet is aligned with the latest research in sustainability.

We hope that journalists and funders alike will continue to use the Journalism Value Project output — the podcast, the mapping and research, and the final report of our findings — to turn these insights into action.