This April, the third cohort of the GNI Fundamentals Lab for INN Members will begin training in audience development, reader revenue and sponsor advertising thanks to a partnership between the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) and the Google News Initiative (GNI). Over three months, newsrooms will receive personalized audits of their current activities, attend learning sessions and participate in working groups to compare performance and tactics related to each topic area.
After completing the program, participating newsrooms can submit a plan for how they would apply lessons learned and receive up to $20,000 in funding.
Reflecting on participation in the first cohort, MinnPost’s Advancement Director Laura Lindsay noted, “The GNI Fundamentals Lab gave us direct, actionable, and easy-to-understand suggestions to improve our site for better audience, membership and advertising outcomes. It was also nice to be in a cohort and see that we weren’t alone in needing some improvements and also to gain inspiration from peer organizations. We appreciated the encouraging tone that the facilitators took during the sessions, and we plan to continue to refer to the audits as we move forward in making improvements to our site.”
Since October 2023, a total of 116 newsrooms have participated in the program — with 51 newsrooms in the first-ever cohort and 65 in the second.
News organizations participating in the third cohort:
- Civil Eats
- InvestigateWest
- Charlottesville Tomorrow
- Borderless Magazine NFP
- The Lens
- Solitary Watch
- The JOLT News Organization
- Sapan News Network
- The Lakeville Journal Foundation
- Mountain Journal
- The Narwhal
- City Limits
- The Highlands Current
- BenitoLink
- San Francisco Public Press
- Vermont Independent Media
- Underscore Media Collaboration
- New Mexico In Depth Inc.
- Inkstick Media
- The Daily Yonder
- Lower Cape TV
- Canopy Atlanta
- El Tímpano
- Barn Raising Media Inc.
- Dallas Free Press
- The Atlanta Voice
- Reasons to be Cheerful
- The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting
- The Current GA
- Bolts Magazine
- India Currents Foundation
- Sopris Sun / el Sol del Valle
- Cardinal News
- ecoRI News
- Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
- MindSite News
- Outlier Media
- Evanston RoundTable Media NFP
- Carolina Public Press
- Florida Center for Government Accountability
- The Current Media Inc.
- South Dakota News Watch
- Arizona Luminaria
- Prison Journalism Project
- Anthropocene Magazine
- Voice of OC
- Ipswich Local News
- 100 Reporters
- The Journal
- Threshold
- Mississippi Free Press
- Fresnoland
- PassBlue
- Austin Monitor
- The Ithaca Voice Inc.
- The Land
- Religion Unplugged
- Online Journalism Project
- California Health Report
- San Antonio Report (moved from first cohort)
About 60 news organizations will be selected for each of the six cohorts. The target segments and dates for the next three cohorts will be announced at a later date.
