Join the CSM Partnership Program
The Center for Sustainable Media (CSM) works with digital news publishers, media funders, and policymakers to improve the financial sustainability of independent newsrooms in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.
Becoming a Partner is the best way to stay informed about key trends in media funding, discover new opportunities, understand the major stakeholders, and contribute to our advocacy efforts in the EU to secure more funding for public interest journalism and the news industry.
As a CSM Partner, you will:
Be invited to bi-monthly consultations on our advocacy work, which focuses on reforming EU funding for the news media sector.
Gain access to our European media funding stakeholder map.
Receive early access to our research on 10 years of media funding in the EU.
Obtain detailed 1-2 page summaries of active grant calls and institutional funding opportunities for CEE news publishers. (See a sample here.)
Be invited to exclusive, partner-only webinars on major funding opportunities of EUR 500,000+.
Access our custom database of 35+ funders supporting journalism and the news industry in CEE. (See a sample here.)
Get full access to the Media Finance Monitor archive, including partners-only editions.
Book 1:1 consultations on media funding and management monthly, available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Media organizations can join the Partnership Program by selecting the "Partner" plan on Substack. Alternatively, contact us at partnership@funds4media.org to discuss details.
If you are an individual journalist, represent a small local newsroom, a community media outlet, or any organization that currently lacks the financial means to join our program, we encourage you to reach out to us at partnership@funds4media.org. We will find ways to include you.
Partnership benefits in detail
CSM is advocating for EU funding reforms to increase resources for journalism and the news industry. Learn more about our advocacy efforts here.
Partners play a key role in shaping our advocacy strategy, setting priorities, and determining the most effective funding mechanisms. We organize bi-monthly online consultations with partners to update you on progress, discuss strategy, and gather input.
The European Media Funding Stakeholder Map
As part of our advocacy, we’re developing a stakeholder map of key decision-makers in Brussels and other European capitals. This map, expected to be completed by Q1 2025, will be presented to our partners, who will have exclusive access to this resource.
Early access to our research
CSM is conducting a large study into media funding in Europe. We are analyzing 10 years of funding from 2014 to 2023 to see how much the EU has spent on journalism and the news media sector and how this money was distributed among member countries and organizations. Partners will have access to the preliminary findings (ETA Q4 2024) and the raw data we gathered from the EU’s Financial Transparency System and other open source databases. We’ll also invite partners to an exclusive early online presentation at the end of this year to share our interpretation of the data.
Detailed summaries of funding opportunities
Partners will receive detailed 1-2 page summaries of every new grant call (and other institutional funding opportunity) we feature in our Media Finance Monitor newsletter. (See a sample here)
Webinars on major calls
We’ll host webinars for partners on significant funding opportunities (EUR 500,000+), covering project priorities, eligibility, and past beneficiaries, where relevant.
CEE Media Funders Database
Partners get access to our funders database that has been the basis of our grant mapping efforts since CSM was launched. The database contains the profiles of 35+ funders, our classifications, notes and a catalogue of their active and recently active calls. (A free funder list by Evenly Distributed is available here.)
Full archive of the Media Finance Monitor and Partners only edition
As a partner, you can access the full archive of our Media Finance Monitor newsletters and receive exclusive partners-only editions.
Book 1:1 time for consultancy
Each partner can book monthly 1:1 consultancy sessions, available on a first-come, first-served basis. These sessions cover a range of topics, including audience revenue, institutional funding, business, product, or content development.
We are also working on expanding the current list of benefits, see our roadmap for 2025 here:
