Applications open for the Tiny News Collective
The Tiny News Collective is now accepting applications for our second group of founders launching local news organizations in the United States.
Over this past year, we’ve been thrilled to work with and learn from our initial cohort of Tiny News Founders and we look forward to expanding on our membership with our next group of founders. We are seeking up to six organizations to join the collective.
The Tiny News Collective is an effort to make journalism entrepreneurship more accessible and achievable for people across the country seeking to serve their communities with the news and information they are receiving.
The need for dedicated local news has only grown, making it more important than ever to help aspiring entrepreneurs design and launch local newsrooms. We know that this work is not easy work. It is time-consuming, complicated, expensive — and risky. The Tiny News Collective is here to help founders navigate this complicated road.
Learn more about the resources available to TNC members here.
The Tiny News Collective was built from the ground up to give founders the best possible chance to succeed by providing the tools, resources and commonwealth of knowledge to help people build sustainable news organizations that reflect and serve their communities.
Additional Funding and Support
Thanks to a new partnership with the Reynolds Journalism Institute, members of the second Tiny News Collective cohort are eligible to be considered for additional funding and resources from the Reynolds Journalism Institute. Selection of the three RJI TNC Founders will be determined by RJI from the selected TNC applicants. RJI will be a part of the TNC interview process to get to know candidates for this opportunity. Participation in the RJI program will be managed between founders and the RJI team independently of TNC. The funding will be distributed through TNC’s fiscal sponsorship processes in accordance with the funding agreement with RJI.
Participation includes:
- $50,000 per year for two years.
- Visiting RJI once a year to meet with faculty and students to discuss your work.
- Writing about your startup journey three times a year to be published on RJIOnline.org.
- Attending virtual meetings to discuss progress.
- Working with students at the University of Missouri.
Our Timeline
Applications Open: November 18, 2021
Applications Close: January 9, 2022
Invitations to join the collective will be made in February.
As we did last time, this will not be a typical application process where we post a link to an application and then get back to applicants weeks or even months later with an acceptance or rejection letter. We have open office hours, virtual business planning workshops and application worksheets to help founders to assess where they are at in their entrepreneurial journey and feel confident about their application. Our application is designed so that even if founders don’t end up choosing to join us, the thinking and planning done for the application will be useful as they move forward with starting their news organization. We’ve also shortened our application a bit to focus on the questions we feel are most important in helping us figure out if we’re a good fit for each other.
We’re Here to Support You
Our application process includes multiple opportunities to ask our team about the application process and what being a member of the Collective means.
AMA: Ask Me Anything! #BuildTheNews
These sessions are your opportunity to speak with the TNC team about the application process, the technology stack and the services available as part of membership in the Tiny News Collective. Click the link to sign up.
AMA #1: December 2, 2021 at 3 p.m. ET/ 12 p.m. PT
AMA #2: December 14, 2021 at 3 p.m. ET/ 12 p.m. PT
AMA #3: January 4, 2021 at 3 p.m. ET/ 12 p.m. PT
Workshop #BuildTheNews Community Canvas
This one hour session will be a step-by-step instructional intended to help you identify and draw your local community using our community canvas created in partnership with Outlier. This workshop will be held on December 9, 2021 at 3 p.m. ET/ 12 p.m. PT
Workshop #BuildTheNews Lean Business Plan Canvas
Our second one hour session will help you brainstorm business goals for the organization you are building while centering the community in your work. This workshop will be held on December 16, 20212 at 3 p.m. ET/ 12 p.m. PT
For more information please contact moumita@newscatalyst.org or press@tinynewsco.org.
News Catalyst, based at Temple University and supported by the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund, is leading product and technology. LION Publishers, an association serving aspiring and existing independent news entrepreneurs, is developing the training, onboarding and community elements of the project in partnership with the Google News Initiative.