What are Audience Engaged Journalism Grants?

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN is seeking applications from Visegrad and Balkan newsrooms for Audience-Engaged Journalism Grants, a programme designed to support journalists in ten European countries who want to create next-level investigative reports by engaging with their audiences through an innovative digital tool.

What does the training cover?

Grantees selected by the international jury under the Audience-Engaged Journalism Collaboration scheme will undergo a four-day training programme that will be offered online. The training agenda will cover the following topics:

• Planning an engagement story

• How to select an engaging topic: what do people want to talk about?

• How to develop a callout 

• What makes a project an engagement project?

• Local and global perspective in engagement journalism

• How to design a callout – technical perspective (intro to the audience-engaged tool)

• Audience-engaged tool implementation

• Callout development based on local examples

• How to design a callout from an editorial perspective 

• How to read the results; which topic could have success in your newsroom?

• What do people want to talk about?

Activities and project support

In a four-day online training course, the participating media outlets will learn how to use the tool to produce engaging and investigative reports, how to select engaging topics, how to develop a callout, how to analyse crowdsourced data, how to incorporate data into stories and how to shape their story proposal according to audience-engaged journalism.

BIRN will award €4,000 to two (2) successful applicants interested in producing individual audience-engaged investigative stories.BIRN will grant €5,000 to eight (8) successful applicants interested in producing a cross-border audience-engaged story. In situations in which a media outlet already has a media partner for a cross-border story, they may apply together for a grant of €10,000 to cover expenses for both parties.

BIRN encourages participants to collaborate and share knowledge to create compelling stories that are relevant and impactful for their audiences. The Audience-Engaged Journalism Grants foster a collaborative environment in which media outlets can come together to share their proficiency and expertise. By working together, media outlets not only enhance their reporting capabilities but also increase their reach and impact.

General eligibility

Media outlets based in the following countries can apply for Audience-Engagement Journalism Grants: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia and Slovakia.

The call for applications is open to 10 participants in the first year and 10 participants in the second year (one media outlet per country per training cycle).

Media outlets which have been priory supported by BIRN and have access to the audience-engaged tool are NOT eligible to apply for this call.

Selection criteria

• Demonstrate a deep understanding of the problem they seek to solve.

• Demonstrate a willingness to undertake audience research and find ways to serve new audiences.

• A vision of what success would look like with metrics to measure against.

• Promotion of quality independent journalism

• Capacity to implement the project

• Willingness to include diversity and gender equality

• Openness to journalism collaborations

Application requirements

1. Stories must tackle an issue relevant to your national/regional/local audience if you are applying for individual grant.

2. Stories must tackle an issue relevant to audiences in Southeast and Central European countries if you are applying for collaborative grant.

3. Applicants should elaborate ideas on how they will include underrepresented communities in their stories (marginalised communities, such as minorities, youth, women and other underreported communities).

4. The story must be investigative and in-depth.

5. All stories must be published within eight months from the date of signing a contract

6. Applicants must demonstrate commitment in using BIRN’s audience-engaged tool to produce their stories.

In order to apply for the Audience-Engaged Journalism Grants, media outlets should:

• Fill out an online application form which should:

  •  Be completed in the English language.

  • Outline general information, current audience data, and a story proposal.

• Submit the following supporting documents within the embedded application form:

  • Financial Proposal. Download the budget template here.

  •  Business Registry Certificate or any other document certifying that the applicant is registered as a legal entity in (country) as of January 2022.

  • Financial Statements for the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years, if applicable.

  •  Certificate from relevant tax authority that the media outlet is a regular taxpayer.

  •  A Court Certificate that the media outlet does not have ongoing legal proceedings nor is awaiting the final judgment of cases against the organization.

  • Editorial policy, if applicable.

Selection process and timeline

1. Administrative checks will be done by BIRN to ensure the applicants have followed application procedures and submitted all the required documents.

2. Evaluation will be done by the international jury to select applicants based on the evaluation criteria, including: quality of the proposed idea; feasibility of the proposed plan; ability to reach the broad public. 

Media outlets should fill out an online application form by June 30. to apply for the Audience-Engaged Journalism Grants. Before submitting an application, don’t forget to read important information in the Call for Application.
Read more about the application here.

If you have any questions, feel free to register and join one of our info sessions:

 Information session 15 May 2023 at 15:00 (CET), register here.
 Information session 13 June 2023 at 10:00 (CET), register here.

Or write to the project coordinator at [email protected].