BANGOR, MAINE — APRIL 9, 2024 — The Maine Independent News Collaborative (MINC) announced today that it has opened an initial round of grant applications in support of a grassroots effort to sustain and grow independent local journalism in Maine.
These initial planning grants are intended to support independent Maine publishers in their efforts to grow digital capacity and revenue resiliency through the creation of an Infrastructure Fund that will provide tools to improve audience development, digital equity and reader revenue capacity.
Planning grants will provide MINC members with the training and technical support needed to bring digital technology to industry standards while allowing publishers to craft plans to improve digital revenue performance while potentially serving a wider audience.
After planning grants are distributed to partners, MINC’s steering committee will shift its focus to providing project grants of up to $25,000 in the fourth quarter of 2024. Project funding will enable publishing partners to implement ideas developed during this initial planning phase.
Initial funding for the MINC Infrastructure Fund has been provided by the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation and the Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation.
The creation of the Maine Independent News Collaborative was announced last year by founding partners the Bangor Daily News, Eastern Maine Development Corporation and the Unity Foundation. MINC is a collaborative community news fund representing 1.5 million readers comprising five local news organizations with common values: Amjambo Africa, the BDN, the Lincoln County News, Penobscot Bay Press and The Quoddy Tides. The project is fiscally sponsored by EMDC.
“The MINC Infrastructure Fund encourages information sharing among members while making investments that advance local goals in a sustainable, smart way,” EMDC CEO and MINC steering committee member Lee Umphrey said. “These grants support local news entities that are part of the local fabric to further strengthen the communities that EMDC works with every day.”
The group has come together to support Maine communities by funding shared-reporting resources, improvements to the digital technologies that deliver our journalism to readers and a collaborative inter-newsroom structure to facilitate statewide accountability and enterprise reporting.
Learn more about the Collaborative and our plans at maineindependentnewscollaborative.org.
Contact: Jo Easton
jeaston@bangordailynews.com
(207) 990-8256