56 news organisations receive Emergency Fund support to address critical business needs caused by COVID-19.
Newry.ie has received a £10,000 grant from the European Journalism Centre (ECJ).
A spokesperson for The European Journalism Centre (EJC) in partnership with the Facebook Journalism Project (FJP) has today announced that 56 organisations are receiving grants as part of wave 1 of the European Journalism COVID-19 Support Fund.
grant from the European Journalism Centre.
“Serving communities in 20 countries, from the United Kingdom to Ukraine, the selected publications are being awarded grants of €10,000 or €25,000 to address immediate and critical business needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The funds are helping organisations cover the salaries of staff members; bring on board freelancers; replace revenue from the making and distribution of printed publications or from donations / subscriptions / membership; supplement or replace lost advertising revenue or revenue from complementary business activities, such as events; and pay for rent, equipment and other technology essential to executing their work.”
Speaking after the announcement, Columba O’Hare, Director/Editor of Newry.ie, said: “Newry.ie is extremely grateful to the European Journalism COVID-19 Support Fund for their support at this time of great uncertainty.
“To date, we didn’t qualify for any UK Government funding and although we managed to keep afloat until now, the end of May was going to be a very difficult time.
“Thankfully, now instead of channelling all our energy into working out where the next pound comes from, we can now go back to doing what we enjoy best… keeping our readership informed of all that is happening in Newry while never ceasing to highlight our local champions.”
Columba added: “This funding will also help us expand our coverage of the Covid-19 crisis locally, providing essential trustworthy information at a time when so much misinformation is out there.”
The EJC received an unprecedented response to our call for the Fund – 1,857 applications in total. Of these, 988 were for the Emergency Fund.
The ECJ spokesperson added: “Our independent judging process for the Fund involves three steps: an eligibility check, an appraisal from qualified experts and EJC team members, and a due diligence check.
“We had 22 judges working round the clock to make sure every application is given due consideration and to ensure that every organisation we give a grant to meets all of the eligibility and selection criteria.
“In the coming weeks, we will announce the news organisations and freelance journalists receiving funding through the Engagement Fund and the Innovation Fund. Sign up to the mailing list to receive updates about the Fund including for information about future waves of funding. You can also refer to the FAQs.
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