International Press Institute | New Media Incubator
The New Media Incubator supports early-stage European media organizations with a €15,000 grant and mentorship. Applications are accepted until June 6, 2025 [23:59, CEST].
IPI’s New Media Incubator is an eight-month programme supporting startups and new media ventures. Already in its second edition, the Incubator offers funding, personalized advisory services, training, tools and guidance. The programme will help you identify market needs, discover new opportunities and build sustainable and creative news products shaping the media market today and tomorrow. Applying media should have existing market and audience research, a solid business case and the energy to grow.
Why apply?
The Incubator supports newsrooms that are up to three years old OR have a minimum viable product (MVP) you will launch in the next six months. An MVP is the basic yet functional version of your product enough to test your product and gain feedback with minimal resources. IPI will support participants in implementing their ideas through a core grant scheme funding a specific news product or revenue stream. IPI initiates comprehensive one-on-one needs assessments by IPI’s in-house experts, and a tailored Incubator programme that will train, coach and guide grantees toward product-market fit, resilience and successful implementation of their project. During the Incubator, participants gain a deeper understanding of their target audience’s information needs, prototyping their news product in an effort to increase subscribers, achieve reader revenue and more.
INFO
AMOUNT
A grant of up to €15,000 to deliver your project.
TYPE OF SUPPORT
The project offers:
– One month of personalized needs assessments to identify your challenge, problem statement and roadmap solutions.
– Intensive training focused on tools and skills that can be transferred to your newsroom well beyond the duration of the Incubator, focused on problem-solving and identifying solutions, audience research, strategic planning and product management, journalism formats built for user engagement, digital business models and diversifying revenue models.
– 4-day, in-person bootcamp in Vienna with 2-3 members from each media in the Incubator, coupled with attendance at 2025 IPI’s World Congress and Media Innovation Festival in Vienna.
– One-on-one personalized advisory services bespoke to the needs of your newsroom, with flexible, on-demand industry experts as coaches during the incubator.
– Group coaching sessions with peers developing similar projects.
– Speaker sessions and workshops based on themes determined in the needs assessments.
– Access to an e-learning platform with training modules and recordings from industry leaders. Monthly “Ask-Me-Anything” sessions allow attendees to directly pose questions to industry experts.
– Access to a networking platform with the current cohort, expert coaches, all programme alumni and a network of media innovators.
APPLICATION DEADLINE
June 6, 2025 [23:59, CEST]
ELIGIBLE COUNTRIES
ELIGIBILITY
– You are based in one of the following countries: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Ukraine.
– You are a media organization with an idea that is ready to launch in the next six months or a startup that is up to three years old and building or expanding news products or revenue streams.
For the full eligibility criteria list, please read thoroughly through the official open call guidelines.
APPLICATION DETAILS
For the application form and application details, please visit IPI’s official website.
