Who are you?

The Deep-Dive Business Consultancy is implemented by Thomson Media and targets mid-sized, regional and local, media outlets with a clearly identified problem they are willing to solve. It is designed to level up your business capacities through strategic guidance and technical assistance. In addition to the strategic guidance, mentoring and trainings, Thomson Media will provide grant funding to support activities related to the implementation of new products, services and/or newly developed strategies.

What you can expect

• Public call and selection process

• In-depth needs and capacity assessment

• Tailored business-mentoring program

• Development of business roadmaps

• Investment grants scheme

Grants size

Any grant requested under this call for applications must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:

• Minimum grant amount: €5,000

• Maximum grant amount: €15,000

No co-financing from the applicant’s side is expected or is obligatory within this Call for Applications.

General eligibility

Applicants must be based in one of the following countries: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine.

The illustrative activities that could be financed include, but are not limited to:

• Piloting new sources of revenue

• Introducing and testing new advertising streams (digital advertising, native advertising, etc.);

• New services or products development;

• Online fundraising models (direct engagement of citizens through donations, membership, crowdfunding, etc.);

• Developing and implementing new audience / community engagement strategies – with focus on diaspora, marginalized group, women and youth – that could be used to increase trust and reinforce the mission of media outlets;

• Improving digital content distribution and outreach approaches sensitive to the needs and interests of men and women as part of their targeted audience / community;

• Digital audience research and analysis (to explore socio-economic and other factors influencing media audiences, specifically including women, young people and marginalized groups); and / or

• Developing gender-sensitive work practices, codes of conduct and workplace policies on, for example gender, equal opportunities, sexual harassment, bullying, privacy policy, safety and cyber security.

Application requirements

To apply for the Deep-Dive Business Consultancy media outlets will need to send in an application via the Jotform platform. Applicants need to provide straightforward and illustrative answers to all questions contained in the application.

The application form should be completed in English by the deadline of 28 October 2022, 23:59.

Selection process and timeline

All applications received within the deadline will pass through an administrative check and evaluation by an independent jury against previously set criteria.

During the administrative check, the following will be assessed:

• Compliance with the submission deadline. If the deadline has not been met, the application will automatically be rejected.
• Completeness of the application form. If any of the requested information/document is missing or is incorrect, or not in English, the application may be rejected on that sole basis and it will not be evaluated further.
• Submission of only one application per interest media under this grant and support scheme. Individual applications, not collaborations or partnerships, are welcomed.
• Date of registrations. Applicant should be registered for, at least, five years.
• Entity of application could be CSO, business or public entity.

The application that passes this check will be evaluated further as part of the quality assessment. The international jury will review the proposals submitted and evaluate them against the criteria of relevance, capacity, financial and operational resilience, potential and social impact.

Successful applicants at this phase, upon positive notification, will sign the Pre-Agreement with Thomson Media and become a recipient of technical assistance.

FINAL NOTIFICATION
The applicants will be informed by email about the decision concerning their application by mid-December 2022.