The Next Challenge for Media & Journalism is a national startup competition seeking groundbreaking, innovative, early-stage startups reinventing media and journalism. Both for-profit and nonprofit startups are eligible, for six prizes, totaling $200,000 in three divisions.
- The Future of Local Journalism Award will support an innovative startup serving a specific local or regional geography, filling a gap in existing local news services.
- The NewsTech Award will support a startup building digital tools to address the critical tech needs of journalists and local news organizations.
- The Open-Source Intelligence Award will support a startup leveraging publicly available data to strengthen the fact-finding, verification, and accountability capabilities of local journalists.
In addition to grant funding, finalists get free training, mentorship from industry experts, and build a cohort with others facing similar challenges. This year, the Next Challenge is aligned with Press Forward and will support organizations transforming local news, building technology to power future newsrooms, and analyzing publicly available data to power essential local journalism.
