June 6, 2024

This June, the fourth 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.

Since October 2023, a total of 176 newsrooms have participated in the program — with 51 newsrooms in the first-ever cohort, 65 in the second and 60 in the third.

News organizations participating in the fourth cohort:

• Highway 58 Herald
• SpotlightDC
• Better Government Association
• Amjambo Africa, a program of Ladder to the Moon Network
• Signal Ohio
• Pikes Peak Bulletin
• Public Square Amplified
• Montana Free Press
• Austin Vida
• Flint Beat
• Watershed Voice
• Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism/BirminghamWatch
• Granite State News Collaborative
• Austin Investigative Reporting Project dba The Austin Bulldog
• Historic Northeast Media dba The Northeast News
• Mission Local SF
• LehighValleyNews.com
• West View Media
• Bay Nature Institute
• Winchester News
• The Providence Eye
• Jacksonville Today at WJCT Public Media
• Streetcar Suburbs Publishing
• South Side Weekly NFP
• SJV Water
• El Tecolote
• Needham Observer
• NJ Spotlight News (WNET Spotlight LLC)
• Oklahoma Watch
• WyoFile
• The Baltimore Banner
• Sustainable Journalism Foundation DBA NonDoc Media
• Los Angeles Public Press
• New York Focus
• Mountain State Spotlight
• Delaware Public Media
• Advocate Media
• Injustice Watch
• Kent News,Inc
• Block Club Chicago
• EdSource
• City Bureau
• Brookline.News
• Center for Broadcast Journalism
• YourArlington
• The Lexington Observer
• The Tributary
• Conecta Arizona
• 365 Media Foundation Inc.
• CivicLex
• Bay City News Foundation
• LOOKOUT Publications
• PublicSource
• My Neighborhood News Network
• The Oglethorpe Echo
• Columbia Missourian
• The Red & Black
• WGLT
• Honolulu Civil Beat
• The Jersey Vindicator

The fifth cohort will serve organizations with budgets under $1 million and applications are due on June 17. The sixth and final cohort will be open to any eligible INN member who has not previously participated. Applications for that cohort are due Aug. 4. Interested members can apply for both cohorts right now.