January 8, 2024

Thanks to a partnership between the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) and the Google News Initiative (GNI), this February the second cohort of the GNI Fundamentals Lab for INN Members will begin training in audience development, reader revenue and sponsor advertising. 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.

In October 2023, the program kicked off with 52 newsrooms in the first-ever cohort that ran until January 2024.

“Feedback from our first cohort was strong, and participants raved about the website audits and how useful they are,” said Jonathan Kealing, INN’s chief network officer. “We’re excited to start our second cohort with GNI and bring those benefits to another group of INN members.”

News organizations participating in the second cohort:

• Capitol News Illinois
• The Wayne & Garfield County Insider
• Unsettled
• The New Pine Plains Herald
• WitnessLA
• The Riverside Record
• Salish Current
• The Record North Shore
• The Contributor, Inc.
• The Jersey Bee
• Mineral Wells Area News
• Key Peninsula News
• The Buckeye Flame
• The Utah Investigative Journalism Project
• The Kansas City Defender
• Boulder Reporting Lab
• Floodlight
• Investigative Journalism Foundation
• Alameda Post Inc.
• Food Bank News
• Four Points Media LLC
• AfroLA
• The Xylom
• Voices of Monterey Bay
• Wausau Pilot & Review
• Belmont News Foundation
• VoxPopuli Corp.
• The Shoestring
• LkldNow
• The Reporters Inc.
• The Mendocino Voice
• NancyOnNorwalk
• Hudson Valley Pilot
• The Bedford Citizen
• Tucson Sentinel
• An Arm and a Leg/Public Road Productions
• Door County Knock
• Open Vallejo
• MIWISCONSIN MEDIA INC
• Shasta Scout
• Oviedo Community News
• Hothouse 2.0
• Patagonia Regional Times News
• Miami Fourth Estate (Key Biscayne Independent)
• Nina Ignaczak
• East Greenwich News
• Borderzine
• DC Witness
• Eden Prairie Local News, Inc.
• The Frisc
• Stocktonia News Group
• Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism
• The Badger Project
• New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism
• Peekskill Herald
• Asheville Watchdog
• East Lansing Info
• Athens County Independent (Southeast Ohio Independent News)
• Truth Has A Voice Foundation
• The Charlotte News
• The Red Hook Daily Catch
• Cecil Public Media
• Limestone Media Inc.
• The 9th Street Journal
• International Media Project

About 60 news organizations will be selected for each of the six cohorts. INN members can apply to participate in the program on a rolling basis. The deadline to apply for the next cohort is Feb. 12. Learn more about eligibility and how to apply.