Grants to assist innovation, sustainability and resilience for Australian news producers.

You can apply if you:

• have an Australian business number (ABN)
• are registered for the Goods and Services Tax (GST)
• have an account with an Australian financial institution.

and are one of the following entities:

• an entity, incorporated in Australia
• an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation registered under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (Cth)
• a company limited by guarantee
• an incorporated trustee on behalf of a trust
• an incorporated association
• a co-operative
• a partnership
• an incorporated not for profit organisation or registered charity
• a sole trader.

Additional eligibility requirements:

If you are applying as a news organisation, we can only accept applications where you:

• confirm you have been a successful grantee under the News Media Relief Program and you maintain your primary purpose is the creation and distribution of digital core news content, or
• confirm you have been a successful grantee under the Journalism Assistance Fund and you can provide evidence your primary purpose is the creation and distribution of digital core news content, or
• provide evidence your primary purpose is the creation and distribution of digital core news content.

If you are applying as an enabling organisation that provides support to Australian news producers, we can only accept applications:

• where you confirm that you have previously provided enabling support services to Australian news organisations within the last 5 years, or
• that your organisation has capacity to provide these services.

You cannot apply if you are:

• any organisation not included in section 4.1 of the grant opportunity guidelines
• an organisation, or your project partner is an organisation, included on the National Redress Scheme’s list of Institutions that have not joined or signified their intent to join the Scheme
• an employer of 100 or more employees that has not complied with the Workplace Gender Equality Act (2012)
• affiliated with a foreign government, political party, union, financial institution, non-government organisation, or policy lobby group where that affiliation would influence or might be seen to influence, the content produced by the applicant
• insolvent
• a foreign controlled Australian entity (section 820-780 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997)
• a trust (however, an incorporated trustee may apply on behalf of a trust)
• a Commonwealth, state, territory or local government body (including government business enterprises) 
• a non-corporate Commonwealth entity
• the Australian Associated Press
• any organisation that is wholly, or in part controlled by another applicant organisation.

Only one application is permitted from any related bodies corporate, which includes a parent organisation and all entities it owns or controls (subsidiaries, affiliates, or related companies). If an organisation submits an application, no other entity within the same related bodies corporate may apply. If more than one application is submitted, only one application will be deemed eligible.

You can be part of one additional joint application.

Partner with other organisations

You can partner with one or more other organisations that also meet the eligibility criteria. But you must decide who the lead organisation is.

The lead organisation must fill out the application form.

If we give your group the grant, the lead organisation:

• signs the grant agreement
• is responsible for making sure your group follows the rules in the grant agreement.

You must complete your project by 31 March 2028.

Your project must be a new activity, that expands or transform:

• the production and provision of core news content distributed digitally, including new reporting in under-represented areas, or
• the commercial sustainability of an Australian digital core news producers, or
• the internal capacity, capability and resources of an Australian digital core news business.

You can apply for a grant between $10,000 and $9,000,000.

You can use this grant funding for:

• wages of new journalists and content support staff
• domestic travel for training/upskilling of staff or for research and targeted reporting (up to 10 per cent of eligible expenditure)
• cost of training courses and conference fees for training/upskilling of staff
• capital expenditure for the purchase of assets directly related to the project
• alternate advertising
• purchase of equipment including computer/ICT software and hardware
• contracting of external support for any of the following:
  • new Web Publishing services
  • software engineering
  • technical support for installing digital news content production or distribution equipment (e.g. sound production installation)
  • commissioning, for example:
    • commissioning feasibility studies or planning work through to commissioning full IT builds or installations
    • commissioning research to better understand the sector you are targeting and best ways to deliver your content
• developing a content and marketing model for user-generated income via digital subscriptions
• core function expenditure items that do not exceed 10 per cent of total eligible project expenditure. Core function expenditure items include:
  • accounting
  • legal advice
  • human resources
  • in-house marketing and communications
  • wages for administrative support staff.

We encourage you to review the grant opportunity guidelines for further information.