August 14, 2024

This August, the fifth 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). Since October 2023, more than 230 newsrooms have participated in the program — with 51 newsrooms in the first-ever cohort, 65 in the second, 60 in the third and 60 in the fourth. The sixth and final cohort will begin in October.

Through the GNI Fundamental Lab for INN Members, newsrooms spend three months receiving personalized audits of their current activities, attending learning sessions and participating in working groups to compare performance and tactics related to each topic area. After completing the program, participants can submit a plan for how they would apply lessons learned and receive up to $20,000 in funding.

News organizations participating in the fifth cohort are:

• Applegate Valley Community Newspaper, Inc.
• Ashland.news
• Aspen Journalism
• Belt Media Collaborative
• Capital B
• Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism
• Central Current
• Centro de Periodismo Investigativo
• Circle of Blue
• Columbia Insight
• Feet in 2 Worlds
• Friends of San Quentin News
• Gig Harbor Now
• Global Reporting Centre
• H2O Radio
• IndiJ Public Media
• Inside Climate News
• Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis
• Isthmus Community Media
• KPCW
• Marblehead News Group
• Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
• National Parks Traveler
• North Carolina Health News, Inc
• North Dakota News Cooperative
• palabra by NAHJ
• Pasquines
• Prism
• Public Health Watch
• Rest of World
• Rochester Beacon
• Science Friday Initiative
• Shelterforce (National Housing Institute)
• Sludge
• Street Roots
• The Dial
• The Forward
• The Garrison Project
• The Intercept
• The Lund Report
• The Macon Newsroom
• The National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company
• The Objective
• The Sierra Nevada Ally
• Tone Madison
• Washington Monthly
• WVIA

The sixth and final cohort will begin in October and is open to eligible INN members who have applied to the GNI Fundamentals Lab for INN members but not yet participated. (The application period has closed.) Members with any questions may reach out to INN at fundamentalslab@inn.org for assistance.