Business fundamentals and organizational resilience in the age of AI
IPI’s Global AI Accelerator for Media is a specialized programme serving small and mid-sized independent news outlets in Global Majority countries
◕ Deadline
Applications are accepted until February 4, 2026 [23:59, CEST].
☏ Need more info?
Register for the info session Q&A on January 15 at 14:00 to learn more.
✺ Read the FAQ
The Basics
IPI’s Global AI Accelerator for Media is an eight-month funding and support programme for small-to-medium-sized independent news outlets from Global Majority countries. It is designed for organizations seeking to experiment with AI and new technology to invest in the medium and long-term viability that ensures the freedom to do journalism independent of outside influence.
Selected media organizations will receive 8 months of up to $14,000 in funding alongside expert-led training and workshops, personalized advisory services, and access to networks and future sources of support. IPI will work directly with participants to co-create a roadmap for AI adoption that reflects changes in consumer markets and business opportunities and doubles down on security and credibility concerns.
The programme furthers IPI’s committment to a thriving independent media ecosystem enabled by innovation and new technologies, while upholding human-made journalism as a guarantor of truth in the public interest.
How the programme works
Newsrooms will work on both medium-term adoption of AI through literacy training, user research, and iterative sandbox experiments, as well as long-term strategic planning. The Accelerator follows a learning journey complemented by iterative implementation of solutions. As participants begin to understand possibilities and constraints and use methods in user research, market and competitor analysis, and operational strategy, they will identify pathways most relevant to their product and a roadmap of implementation. IPI’s expertise in innovation, business development, and technology adoption, combined with our network of interdisciplinary experts, will guide publishers from exploration through to prototyping and delivering news products in an increasingly AI-intermediated information environment.
Participants will research and develop a pathway to best serve their needs: (1) strategies for developing guardrails and maintaining credibility and trust, (2) enhancing or developing audience engagement and revenue products, and (3) strengthening operational workflows and organizational strategy. Participants will have access to interdisciplinary experts and regular check-ins to discuss emerging needs and co-develop practical solutions addressing the concurrent challenges publishers face.
Beyond the accelerator: Participants will join our existing global network of newsrooms experimenting with AI and innovative news products, connect through IPI’s Media Innovators Mentorship, and build formal connections with region-specific partners in computer science, civil society, and technology companies.
Background
In its fifth year, IPI’s innovation programme provides funding, structure and access to networks to help independent media organizations maintain their independence. Through this year’s Global AI Accelerator for Media, we’re investing in strategy development and leadership skills while creating measurable pathways to sustainability.
Independent news outlets are urgently responding to disruptions in monetization, credibility, and changing consumer behavior. Market-level pressures include audience fragmentation, the high cost of producing quality investigative reporting, and competition with low-cost viral content, while AI introduces new risks such as reduced referral traffic and potential copyright violations. Despite the apparent ease of using LLMs and chatbot interfaces, significant barriers prevent publishers from leveraging AI’s full potential, particularly around building with open-source tools that offer greater personalization and control over first-party data. This accelerator addresses these gaps by equipping independent media with the knowledge and resources to navigate AI strategically and sustainably.
Why apply?
The Accelerator has been designed to support media in Global Majority countries explore needs and positional solutions to challenges in their newsrooms. Participating media will have a clear and defined understanding of the challenge they seek to address. We will support participants with literacy in AI tools and developing safeguards, using product and design strategies to inform next steps, prototyping and developing solutions to challenges through a grant scheme funding, one-on-one needs assessment by IPI’s in-house experts and a tailored accelerator programme that will train, coach and guide grantees toward self-sustained resilience and successful involvement in the accelerator.
The format is based on IPI’s innovation and product development practice, refined over 5 years of delivering funding and advisory mechanisms worldwide that achieved measurable benefits such as doubling and tripling video, newsletter and paying subscribers, delivery of new products, as well as long-lasting content and funding partnerships. One key benefit communicated repeatedly by the group was that connections among the cohort allowed them to build a community and share ideas with media navigating similar challenges.
Curriculum Timeline
Application details
Key activities and benefits of the programme
- A grant of up to $14,000 to deliver your project.
- Intensive training focused on tools and skills that can be transferred to your newsroom well beyond the duration of the AI Accelerator, 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.
- 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.
Selection criteria and eligibility
- Eligible Geographies: The call is open to the newsrooms from Global Majority countries based in one of the following regions: Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
- You must have a verifiable online presence and must have been fully operational for at least three years before the application call.
- You must be an independent news organization of small or medium size (3–50 staff members) that is already experimenting with, developing guardrails around or investigating AI technologies.
- You will present a pain-point or challenge, alongside user research and other evidence that your organization is responding to.
- You must be able to carry out the grant-funded work within an eight-month timeframe.
- You must agree to exchange business insights and collaborate transparently with fellow grantees and programme alumni, track your progress throughout the programme, and take part in a live final design review pitching to cohort members.
- Your media organization is independent from political or business interests, is consumer-facing, and is investing in an audience-centric concept or product for news gathering, creating or distributing journalistic work, and monetisation; or innovation in your media’s business model that will help make the company sustainable, competitive and of value to its community.
- You must self-assess your current comfort level with AI tools and concepts, ranging from beginner to advanced.
- You must show openness to experimentation, including a readiness to test and refine ideas using AI.
- You should articulate how you have been collecting audience data and describe your ability to verify and interpret this data.
- You should describe the guardrails or boundaries you currently have in terms of exposure and use of AI.
- You should show openness to building a newsroom culture that thinks carefully and critically about AI, rather than using tools automatically.
- You should clearly describe the challenge you want to address with AI and explain why the challenge matters, who it affects, and why AI is a promising approach to solving it.
- You should explain your vision for how AI will shape your work and describe how you expect AI to influence your relationship with your consumer market or audience.
Selection process
- Applications will undergo an initial pre-screening to review basic application requirements. Applicants may be asked to supply additional information during this phase. Applications that do not meet basic requirements will not be forwarded to the jury.
- An independent, international jury will then review and preselect a list of candidates, each of whom will be invited to a final interview phase of their application before the final decision is made. This interview will be between 30 and 45 minutes and take place online.
- Once the interviews are complete, the jury will confirm the final list and 15 successful projects will be asked to sign a contract with IPI.
- The jury will be made up of individuals with a background in application of AI in newsrooms. Any attempt by any donor or partner organization to interfere in the decisions of the jury will be immediately reported to the rest of the jury. Jury members will be required to declare any possible conflicts of interest, and will be asked to recuse themselves from any judgment where such conflicts may interfere with independence or the public perception of independence. These recusals will be recorded.
Funding details
The Global AI Accelerator for Media funds may cover any percentage of a project’s costs, up to 100 percent of the total. Co-funding is encouraged but not mandatory. Applicants must declare any existing sources of funding on their application.
Applicants to the Global AI Accelerator for Media can request grants up to $14,000. Selected projects will sign a grant agreement with IPI to receive the funds. The disbursement of funds will be made in two installments:
- IPI will transfer to the recipient 60% of the Global AI Accelerator for Media grant amount upon signing the grant agreement.
- The final 40% will be provided on the approval of a one-page narrative document measuring the success of their project over the eight-month Accelerator, a review of how it contributed to the overall growth of their newsroom, and a review of how the grant was spent and what their newsroom’s future plans are.
The Global AI Accelerator for Media grant may be used to cover nearly any costs necessary for participation in the Accelerator and use-cases associated with AI adoption. The budget will be adapted throughout the project. This includes, but is not limited to, programmatic and operational costs (e.g., travel costs to IPI’s annual Media Innovation Festival), software, web development, human resources, research- and production-related costs, travel costs and translation costs. Hardware costs (e.g., computers and video cameras) are not eligible.
Application Process and Timeline
Apply by submitting the application form. Applicants can save the application form by clicking “save” and return to it until they have completed it and are ready to submit. They will be emailed a link to their application, which they can return to until February 4, 2026 [23:59, CEST]. Once the application is submitted, it can no longer be edited.
Only applications in English received via the Jotform platform by the stated date and time will be considered. You will receive an email confirmation of your submission.
If you’re not sure about your eligibility, contact [email protected] or sign up for our upcoming info session on January 15 at 14:00 CEST.
Apply Now
ℹ️ Please note that we only accept applications in English via Jotform.
For preparation only, please find this Preparatory Google Doc with the full list of questions from the Jotform below. To use it, you can make a copy of the document. The Google Doc is not needed for the application, it is a resource to help you prepare to fill out the application form via Jotform (below).
What is the Accelerator?
The format is based on IPI’s innovation and product development practice, refined over 5 years of delivering funding and advisory mechanisms worldwide that achieved measurable benefits such as doubling and tripling video, newsletter and paying subscribers, delivery of new products, as well as long-lasting content and funding partnerships. These programmes include Transition Accelerator, Local News Accelerator and New Media Incubator.
Which activities does the Accelerator include?
The Accelerator curriculum timeline features the following main activities:
Curriculum Timeline
- Eligibility validation
- Organizational audit
- Design and product thinking
- AI literacy and safeguards
- AI tools for SME newsrooms
- Mapping problem statements and prototyping news products with AI
- Operational responses: AI for audience research and workflows
- Opportunities in the AI-mediated information ecosystem
- Design reviews and product validation
**We will also offer bi-monthly insight sessions from computer science experts developing AI tools, as well as regular check-ins to discuss needs and potential solutions.
Who can apply for the Accelerator?
As er the eligibility and selection criteria, we welcome independent news organization from the Global Majority, of small or medium size (3–50 staff members) to apply to the accelerator.
Your organization must already be experimenting with, developing guardrails around or investigating AI technologies.
- Eligible Geographies: The call is open to the newsrooms in the Global Majority countries based in one of the following continents: Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
- You must have a verifiable online presence and must have been fully operational for at least three years before the application call.
- You will present a pain-point or challenge, alongside user research and other evidence that your organization is responding to.
- You must be able to carry out the grant-funded work within an eight-month timeframe.
- You must agree to exchange business insights and collaborate transparently with fellow grantees and programme alumni, track your progress throughout the programme, and take part in a live final design review pitching to cohort members.
- Your media organization is independent from political or business interests, is consumer-facing, and is investing in an audience-centric concept or product for news gathering, creating or distributing journalistic work, and monetisation; or innovation in your media’s business model that will help make the company sustainable, competitive and of value to its community.
- You must self-assess your current comfort level with AI tools and concepts, ranging from beginner to advanced.
- You must show openness to experimentation, including a readiness to test and refine ideas using AI.
- You should articulate how you have been collecting audience data and describe your ability to verify and interpret this data.
- You should describe the guardrails or boundaries you currently have in terms of exposure and use of AI.
- You should show openness to building a culture that thinks carefully and critically about AI, rather than using tools automatically.
- You should clearly describe the challenge you want to address with AI and explain why the challenge matters, who it affects, and why AI is a promising approach to solving it.
- You should explain your vision for how AI will shape your work and describe how you expect AI to influence your relationship with your consumer market or audience.
How long does the Accelerator last?
The Accelerator takes place for eight months. Participants will have the opportunity to extend mentorship and will remain involved in IPI’s innovation network.
How many projects will be selected?
Up to 15 newsrooms will be selected to participate in the Accelerator.
The AI Accelerator is made possible with support from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.
