Read the Full Open Call Here
Plan Ahead: Questionnaire Questions

Eligibility Requirements

  1. For-profit, nonprofit or public media incorporated news businesses who have been publishing for at least one year are eligible to apply.

  2. Organizations in different stages (including start-ups, legacy outlets, and in between), and serving diverse and underrepresented audiences are all encouraged to apply.

  3. Applicants must identify coverage in a rural market in this region which also falls into at least one of these categories:

    1. A Medill “at risk” or news desert county from the 2024 State of Local News map

    2. A county with less than 1 journalist equivalent in the Local Journalism Index map

    3. A county with less than $1 per capita of local philanthropic assets on the State of Funding in Appalachia map

  4. Applicants must already have at least two full-time journalist employees living within the ARC definition of Central, North Central, and South Central Appalachia. This includes the rural mountain counties of Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. To see if your current and target expansion county fits that criteria, please click HERE.

  5. Multiple news organizations are welcome to state their intent to apply jointly to address the same expansion market, but they would be considered one project applicant and eligible for one $100,000 grant award, split over two years.