Stars4Media is an innovation exchange programme aiming at facilitating cooperation between media professionals, to accelerate media innovation and cross-border cooperation.
Discover the Stars4Media website!
Media professionals, media organisations and tech companies from EU have the opportunity to work together in bottom-up Initiatives to test ideas and technologies, develop new business models and produce journalistic content.
Partners of the project are the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Europe’s Media Lab, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) for the first two editions, and and the European Journalism Centre (EJC) for the third edition*. The project is co-funded by the European Commission.
European news media today face an unprecedented crisis. It is a crisis of identity as well as an economic and societal crisis: financial resources and trust have been declining in the media sector for several years. The Stars4Media pilot project responded to a proposal voted by the European Parliament in 2018. Read more about the policy context here.
The second edition of Stars4Media was a project co-funded by the EU DG CONNECT (2021-2022).
The third edition of Stars4Media project marked the beginning of the “Stars4Media” flagship and took the name Stars4Media-NEWS; co-funded by the European Agency EACEA (2022-2023).
The objectives of the Stars4Media exchange programme have evolved and been strengthened:
- Foster media innovation: editorial, technological and marketing innovation
- Building new media partnerships and supporting mobility and virtual cooperation across Europe
- Promote quality journalism and media pluralism
- Boosting the careers of future “stars” via a vibrant community of media innovators
Stars4Media-NEWS, Europe’s MediaLab flagship, foresees cascading funding that supports European news media organisations, enabling long-term business and newsroom transformation. At least two media from two different EU countries (including Ukraine and Belarusian exile media) collaborate on innovative practices, be it editorial, technological or organisational. Stars4Media-NEWS proposes a two-phase programme with in-depth coaching and peer-to-peer knowledge transfer.
Resources
- How innovation and training can help the news media overcome the crisis? Check the policy brief “Fighting the media crisis through innovation exchanges: lessons from the Stars4Media Pilot Project”.
- Are you interested in tips to find partners and get inspiration from best practices developed during the different Stars4media editions? Discover the Stars4Media Handbook. (pdf)
- To exchange on media innovation, find partners and join innovative training, media professionals can take part in our community: the Stars4Media LinkedIn Group!
- Stars4Media pilot project beneficiaries
- Stars4Media second edition beneficiaries
- Stars4Media-NEWS third edition beneficiaries (including Ukraine and Belarusian exile media)
*Read more about the project team.
