MENLO PARK, Calif. — Having put out a call for applications in early March, Facebook announced today five Canadian publishers are among the 30 North American news organizations who are joining the Facebook Journalism Project (FJP) reader revenue-focused accelerator programs for 2021.
Facebook originally planned to host two FJP accelerator programs focused separately on digital subscriptions and memberships. Instead, Facebook is grouping participants by size and scope: larger publishers with 30 to 100 employees will comprise one group; and smaller publishers with 15 or fewer employees will join a second group. A mix of subscription and membership revenue models will be represented in each cohort, says Facebook’s press release.
More than half (55%) of the 30 participating news organizations are owned or led by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian or other communities of colour, and 75% focus on local news, says the release.
The Canadian publishers participating in the accelerator for larger publishers are:
- Black Press Media (British Columbia), one of Canada’s largest privately owned media companies, operating more than 140 trusted local brands with newspapers in B.C., Yukon, Alberta, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii.
- The Hill Times (Ottawa), Canada’s leading political and policy news source.
The Canadian publishers participating in the accelerator for smaller publishers are:
- The Breach (Canada), an independent, ad-free, non-profit media outlet offering transformative journalism.
- La Converse (Quebec), a French-language, non-profit, community-powered media outlet fuelled by dialogue journalism.
- Peterborough Currents (Ontario), a reader-focused, independent news outlet serving Peterborough, Ont., and the surrounding area.
The three smaller Canadian news outlets are joining the accelerator program after launching with resources and training through Indiegraf, a network of independent community news publishers founded by FJP accelerator alumni Erin Millar and Caitlin Havlak from Canada’s The Discourse.
“The Discourse’s experience in the Accelerator in 2019 showed us that the tactics that are driving reader revenue growth for the big players could work for small independent publishers, too,” Millar said, in the release. “We’ve been thrilled to share those lessons by helping new start-ups get off the ground through Indiegraf, and it’s gratifying to see these indies growing to a place where they can benefit from the Accelerator.”
The accelerators will run from April 20 through mid-July, followed by a six-month period to execute specific grant-funded initiatives.
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