The Google News Initiative (GNI) invites you to apply to our upcoming Startups Lab in Eastern Europe, focused on helping early-stage digital news organizations grow their businesses.

In the Startups Lab, a cohort of news organizations will come together over six months to work on the biggest opportunities for your business, with support from Google, Blue Engine and a wide array of industry experts.

Participants in our Labs:

- Receive in-depth analysis to help identify major areas of opportunity across their business
- Implement specific steps to advance these goals in partnership with world class coaches and industry experts
- Learn from peers who face similar business problems in an open, collegial environment.

We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. Please email us at startupslab-cee2023@google.com with any questions or for additional guidance on whether this program would be a good fit for your news organization.

You are welcome to apply if you:

Geographic Eligibility
- Are based in or serving audiences in one of the following countries: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Ukraine

Newsroom Eligibility
- Minimum of two full-time employee (FTE) journalists, up to a maximum of 20 FTE journalists.
- Newsrooms focused on one or more of the following:

• Public interest journalism
• Filling an information gap
• Serving a geographic-bound or single subject community
• Serving an underserved community
• Exploring new ways to deliver and/or monetize information

- Have produced original content for at least six months, but for no more than four years
- Have a news product (website, newsletter, etc), with demonstrated traction via site visits, sign-ups, and/or earned revenue
- You must be independently owned and operated (e.g. no government ownership in your organization)
- You must not employ government officials or individuals that are also employed by government entities
- Preferred: Entrepreneurs serving communities that don’t often see themselves or their stories reflected in their local news

Program Eligibility
- Can assign a dedicated project manager responsible for ensuring your team attends all program and coaching sessions, and completes all assignments.
- Can assign 2-5 team members for the full duration of the Lab, including attending all live (virtual) sessions and weekly coaching calls: 5-10 hours/week
- Full commitment to the program and to put in the work to develop and grow the project
- Willingness to share business insights and collaborate with fellow news entrepreneurs
- Not a Google employee or contractor

While we are not currently accepting applications for this lab, please sign up for our newsletter to get notified about future versions of this lab and other programs from the Google News Initiative.

Deadline: September 15, 2023

Program Dates: October 2023 - March 2024, with a holiday break

The Startups Lab is a six-month catalyst program that seeks to put a cohort of independent local or single-subject journalism organizations on a pathway to financial and operational sustainability. The Startups Lab was created with support from a global network of industry experts, and has run in North America, Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Latin America, India, and Indonesia.