Sustainable paths to media viability

Expected Outcome:

Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Reinforced digital transformation of the news media industry by facilitating the development of new business models, contributing to a more resilient and inclusive democracies.
• Citizens, particularly those facing systemic disadvantages, are empowered and better equipped to make informed decisions, and news media’s role as contributor to a healthy, reinvigorated and fair democracy is enhanced.
• Stronger engagement with emerging media creators (such as influencers and other online content producers) to promote transparency and accountability in their role in sharing information, and to foster reliance on trustworthy media sources.

Scope:

Democracies are at risk when reliable and independent journalism is at risk. Yet, in order to be truly independent, media need sustainable financing models. At present, journalistic newsrooms are under severe economic pressure. Social media forces them to compete for citizens’ attention with other forms of infotainment, which sometimes entail unverified opinions and low-quality or malicious sources. To promote a well-informed democratic debate, citizens must be able to distinguish quality journalism abiding by professional standards, from opinion pieces and other forms of content, as free speech can thrive in ecosystems that enhance access to verified information and empower citizens to recognise it. Such ecosystems need to help distinguish sources that apply journalistic principles, including methods to ensure accuracy, independence, objectivity, impartiality, inclusivity and plural viewpoints.

To compete in the digital age, European media need to embrace innovation. The Commission’s 2023 European Media industry outlook^[1] signalled that “an early adoption and usage of new technologies is key to adapt and open new markets”. Thus, applicants are invited to work together with news media organisations from the start to enhance innovation across the news media sectors, including by designing industrial and user-driven applications, on areas and aspects such as:

a) development and take up of methods to recognise content produced with journalistic standards (e.g. through trust indicators, browser plugins, etc.), to categorise such content (e.g. through industry-led crawlers, common taxonomies, metadata standards, etc.) and to promote such content (e.g. through inclusive and transparent news-oriented algorithms, recommender systems that show multiple views and prioritise quality information);

b) identification of AI models that can help media build attractive services (e.g. chat bots, search tools, aggregators) and other relevant models which can generate revenues (e.g. dynamic paywalls, advertising, copyright revenues, etc.);

c) innovative methods to ensure user-centric design and user engagement strategies, in compliance with journalistic standards;

d) roll-out of these models and methods towards the development of truly pan-European innovative platforms and/or interoperable standards within the project lifetime;

e) initiatives to federate media industries along a joint innovation agenda.

Innovation projects should focus on concrete ways to help journalistic content serve democracy by addressing aspects such as:

• ensuring that journalistic content remains economically viable in AI-intermediated information spaces;
• ensuring that journalistic content retains relevance and prominence in AI-driven search tools and future information ecosystems in Europe;
• ensuring that algorithms based on journalistic standards (such as accuracy and inclusion) are developed enhancing professional journalism and preserving a trustworthy information ecosystem;
• making sure that citizens are presented with multiple views online to make well-informed decisions;
• development and integration of journalistic trust indicators in recommender systems, browsers and/or European news aggregators;
• take-up of recommender systems that prioritise trusted sources and professional journalism;
• development of better digital advertising business models for news producers, through proprietary systems that offer more brand safety and sufficiently detailed feedback to advertisers through joint metadata and audience measurement tools;
• development of EU-level business case studies, explaining their impact on creation of advertising revenues, subscription revenues, etc.;
• development and adoption of prototypes for recommender systems, proprietary crawlers, proprietary metadata generators, paywalls, advertising systems or other revenue-generating systems that can strengthen the economic viability of journalism.

Proposals are encouraged to investigate the behavioural dimensions of news consumption, focusing on how reader habits, trust, and perceptions influence engagement with journalism. This may include examining the role of behavioural science in designing interventions (such as nudges, gamification, or educational tools) to counter misinformation and strengthen critical thinking among audiences. Proposals are also encouraged to explore the evolving trust dynamics between human-curated journalism and AI-driven news delivery, addressing how public perceptions of reliability, bias, and transparency differ across these sources.

Where relevant, proposals are encouraged to investigate the need for transparency and accountability mechanisms for influencers and content creators who rely on media content in their work. This may entail advocating for clear disclosure of sources, partnerships, and potential biases, as well as fostering collaboration between content creators and media actors, to amplify the visibility and credibility of reliable information sources, ensuring audiences are informed by fact-based, ethically produced content.

Projects are encouraged to involve the relevant parts of the news media ecosystems to ensure take-up of the proposed models. All news media segments are eligible under this action (public, private media, sectoral media, etc) and collaboration across segments and across borders is encouraged. The participation in the consortia of research and academic actors from relevant disciplines, such as information science and media studies, as well as tech companies (e.g. ad-tech or other) to build workable prototypes, and SSH, is strongly encouraged. Where applicable, applicants should leverage the data and services available through European Research Infrastructures federated under the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), as well as data from relevant Data Spaces.

Clustering and cooperation among the selected projects under this topic are strongly encouraged.

[1] The European Media Industry Outlook | Shaping Europe’s digital future