A team of European media leaders from The Netherlands, Ukraine, Portugal, Georgia, Bosnia and Romania will form IPI’s Media Innovation Europe (MIE 2.0) jury for the period of 2024-2026. MIE is a multidisciplinary, multi-project programme that has funded over 50 news organizations in the past two years, and has just kicked off its second edition. The appointed jury will accompany the programme throughout the implementation period and choose the next cohort of newsrooms to take part in IPI’s flagship eight-month Transition Accelerator Programme 2024, as well as the New Media Incubator 2025.
The upcoming Transition Accelerator programme will offer comprehensive capacity-building to empower independent media organizations to grow their business and develop digital transformation and audience-centered solutions. It will also offer funding of up to €20,000 per newsroom to fund their accelerator project.
The jury brings a rich set of expertise, skills and experience from different corners of the media industry. From investigative journalism founders to leaders in editorial, product and audience development strategy, the MIE 2.0 jury is at the forefront of today’s media innovation, helping build the future of journalism.
The jury will be chaired by Dessi Damianova, Chief Operating Officer of Bellingcat, leading the organisational development, fundraising, and finance. Dessi Damianova has over 25 years of experience as a journalist, editor and C-suite executive in the non-profit media development sector. She previously set up large investigative journalism programs in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, working at many prominent newsrooms and media organizations, including BBC World Service, Al Jazeera, Reuters, Press Now, Free Voice and Free Press Unlimited, among others.
“I see media innovation as a centipede, because of the so many aspects it should contain to be truly innovative: how you create value & content, how you distribute it, how you engage with the community, how resilient and sustainable you are, how you organize & manage your organization, the values, culture and passion you build, how you serve the community & cooperate with others, how you use technology responsibly, how you manage your carbon footprint. In short – innovation should be holistic and systemic to be called as such.”
Jury Chair Dessi Damianova, Bellingcat
Within MIE 2.0, the jury will select up to 18 media organizations to take part in the Transition Accelerator, which will offer a comprehensive capacity-building programme to empower independent media organizations in growing their business and developing digital transformation and audience-centered solutions. The programme builds on IPI’s rich Media Innovation methodology and portfolio, designed specifically for European digital media and newsrooms in transition to help them navigate and tackle a specific challenge to growth and sustainability.
In 2025 the Jury will also select 15 participating media for the second edition of the New Media Incubator, offering an eight-month innovation incubator with training, coaching and solutions development with up to €15,000 grants per newsroom.
The full jury will be revealed at the later stages of the programme, ensuring the transparency of MIE selection processes.
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