Mapping & Matching Independent Public-Interest Media Across Europe

The Map (beta)
We collected information from more than 50 European news outlets (more to come) that belong to what we consider The New Sector. From the results of our initial survey we can see a broad variety of stakeholders in the field - from tiny start-ups run by volunteers to established newsrooms with a paid staff of more than 20 people. The size of the circles in the map indicate the number of staff. Also, a good number of these outlets has gained charitable status in the past - as is displayed here.

Discover The New Sector by clicking on the dots (clicking makes the info stick)!

Definition

Here is a working definition of what we mean by independent and public interest news outlets. This definition may be adapted and refined through the mapping process. For now, we include newsrooms that…

were founded at least in part to fill the gap left as commercial news organisations retreated from producing public interest journalism;

offer benefits to their community instead of focusing on profit;

are either non-profit news media or social enterprises that don't distribute profits among their owners/shareholders but reinvest them into the organisation or its mission;

strive to serve the public interest instead of advancing private interests;

have professional and paid staffs – at least regarding the core staff;

are nonpartisan and don’t endorse political candidates;

are transparent about funding;

strive to be accurate, openly correct errors and prominently label sponsored content.

This working definition was inspired by the research of Magda Konieczna, the Membership Standards of the Institute for Nonprofit News and the Guidelines of the Forum Gemeinnütziger Journalismus in Germany.

Timeline

2017

GIJC in Johannesburg: The initial idea for networking between European news non-profits dates back to the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in South Africa.

|

2018

Dataharvest: At the conference a round table discussed whether and how emerging news non-profits in Europe can network on entrepreneurial challenges.

|

2019

Grow Fellowship: The impulse from Johannesburg was taken up prior to the GIJC in Hamburg. Netzwerk Recherche invited pioneers from Europe‘s non-profit journalism sphere for a special pre-conference. The idea of a network to enable and support collaboration and the exchange of expertise was well received among the group.

Informal Meeting: An informal discussion connected with a meeting called by Civitates, bringing together foundations and journalism organisations, highlightes the need for media organisations to collaborate and to get support about management skills.

|

2020

Teaming Up: To bring the idea to live Netzwerk Recherche partnered with Arena for Journalism in Europe and launched the mapping project at Dataharvest conference 2020. It was agreed to broaden the focus from non-profits only to all independent media organizations with a “non-profit state of mind”. Also, academic partners from ZEMKI and HBI joined the mapping effort.

Getting Started: As a first step on the way of creating a network of independent newsrooms a mailing list was launched in which 40 like-minded newsrooms share their thoughts on the project.

|

2021

First Steps: In a survey among members of our mailing list we found out how the organizations envision this network.

|

To Be Continued...

Publishing a Map

Launching a Network

Who We Are

Netzwerk Recherche is the German association for investigative and data journalists. With support of the Schöpflin foundation Netzwerk Recherche is heavily engaged in supporting the evolving sector of non-profit journalism in Germany and Europe, providing grants and fellowships in it's Grow programme for non-profit media entrepreneurs.

Arena for Journalism in Europe supports collaborative journalism – journalists working with other journalists across geographical borders, and journalists working across professional borders with scholars or scientists as well as with civil society. Arena hosts the annual Dataharvest conference and develops open collaborative networks like the Housing Project and the Climate Network

The Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans Bredow Institute (HBI) in Hamburg is one of the leading media research institutes in Europe. The institute's research perspective focuses on media transformation and related structural changes of public communication. With its cross-medial, interdisciplinary and independent research, the institute combines basic research and transfer research, and thus, generates knowledge on issues relevant for politics, commerce and civil society.

The Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) is one of nine Central Research Units of the University of Bremen and and is among the leading European institutions for researching questions of media-related transformations at the interface of cultural and social sciences on the one hand and technical sciences on the other. A special focus of the research is the emerging digital society with regard to existing inequalities, both in terms of current challenges posed by algorithms, automation and data as well as historical questions of their genesis.