English Español Português

Questions?

How is this programme similar or different from other industry training initiatives?

Practical, practical, practical. This is what INMA members expect from our programmes, and this Accelerator is no different.

Our training is based on the latest research and case studies from the INMA network of 16,000+ members in 72 countries. Our faculty consists of academic and media industry leading thinkers and practitioners. Our methods include lectures and presentations, reading materials, case study discussions, practical workshops, one-to-one coaching and work on real-life projects in the participants’ companies.

We measure the success of this Accelerator by your engagement, satisfaction and impact on your business.

What credentials or experience does INMA have in organising accelerators for media businesses?

INMA has nine decades of experience in facilitating ideas sharing in the news industry. In 2020 alone, thousands of news executives and professionals participated in INMA trainings. Among others, INMA worked with Google Digital News Initiative and FT Strategies on the GNI Subscriptions Lab Europe, an accelerator for reader revenue. INMA worked with the Facebook Journalism Project on a subscriptions accelerator in India.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke, it has organised eight online in-depth master classes on smart data, reader revenue, advertising, and product.

The lead of this Accelerator, INMA’s Grzegorz Piechota, prepared and delivered lectures, as well as designed and led highly-praised courses for leading universities, such as the City University New York or Harvard University, other industry associations, such as FIPP or WAN-IFRA, and accelerator programmes led by Facebook and Google in Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe.

How much does it cost a publisher to participate in the Accelerator?

This programme is fully sponsored by Facebook Journalism Project and INMA, so the participating publishers need just to commit the time and effort of their teams.

Based on the industry benchmarks, we estimate the value of consulting each participating publisher will receive up to US$200,000 with no strings attached.

All financial gains from accelerating the online business fully belong to the participating publishers. Each publisher will be only asked to agree to share the learnings with its peers in the Accelerator’s cohort and worldwide.

The 2021 edition of the programme is fully virtual, so there are no extra travel or accommodation costs associated with participating.

Who is eligible to apply?

Media companies from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, or Uruguay with at least three years in the market of the region are eligible to apply.

How are publisher participants selected?

Facebook Journalism Project and INMA are aiming to select 12 - 15 publishers for this Latin American programme. Because the programme requires cooperation among publishers, we are ideally looking for companies with similar experience levels with analytics. We are looking for companies with at least three years in market — so, roughly, in the intermediate range of expertise. We are looking for publishers hungry to improve data capabilities and digital transformation. We have created an application form that will inform Facebook and INMA about a company’s level of data investment. From those application forms, we will select a mix of up to 15 publishers with diverse backgrounds yet somewhat similar expertise levels.

What commitment of time and effort exactly do you expect from a participating publisher?

Before the start of the programme in April 2021, we will expect the selected participants to:

Have a project team set up and a lead chosen.
Collect the data for benchmarking purposes.
Participate in one organisational virtual meeting.
Respond to inquiries from INMA staff.

In the first phase — Training and Benchmarking — from April to July 2021, we will expect the participants to:

Have a project team prepare and actively participate in eight bi-weekly online sessions of at least 1.5 hours each (an estimated commitment of six hours per month in total; and that includes reading materials, discussing case studies, engaging in workshops).
Have an executive sponsor (C-level executive supporting the participation) attend at least one of these eight sessions (an estimated commitment of 1.5 hours in total).
Prepare five brief presentations based on the faculty assignments (that include sharing the best practises from the participating companies) — an estimated commitment of two hours per month.
Define an internal, data-related project focused on increasing or maintaining revenue or generating savings for their company.
Provide feedback and respond to inquiries from INMA staff.

In the second phase — Coaching and Project — from July to October 2021, we will expect participants to:

Have a project team and an executive sponsor participate in two online sessions — at the beginning and the end of the phase (an estimated commitment of four hours in total)
Prepare and deliver two presentations on a chosen Project, and collect feedback from the faculty and peers (an estimated commitment of four hours in total)
Work on an internal, data-related project focused on increasing or maintaining revenue or generating savings for their company (the time commitment will depend on the scope and the size of the project; we estimate eight hours per month as a baseline).
Participate in six mentoring sessions with coaches designated to help the participating company succeed with their Project (an estimated commitment of six hours).
Provide feedback and respond to inquiries from INMA staff.

In the third phase — Sharing the Learnings — in November 2021, we will expect participants to:

Contribute the case studies, data and quotes for the Facebook and INMA publications (an estimated commitment of four hours in a month).
Prepare and deliver one presentation on the programme’s learnings at a joint Facebook and INMA online event — an estimated commitment of four hours in a month.
Have an executive sponsor participate in one online event (an estimated commitment of two hours).
Provide feedback and respond to inquiries from INMA staff.

What is the working language of the Accelerator?

Lectures, coaching, reading materials, and instructions will be in English. We will have Spanish and Portuguese interpreters ready to help the participants when they are presenting or asking questions.

What is a cover letter you ask for in the application form?

Indeed, we ask the applicants to send us cover letters after they fill the online application form.

The purpose of a cover letter is to:

Prove that your application has a support from a C-level executive of the company, so you will be able to commit time and effort throughout the programme. The letter should be signed by a relevant person.
Provide arguments why the jurors should choose your company: display your commitment to audience analytics, explain importance of the problem you want to solve and add a brief information what you expect gaining from this program.

You may compare a cover letter it to a motivational letter that in some countries people add to the CVs when they apply for jobs, or recommendation letters people collect when applying for a fellowship at universities.

Please send your cover letter to Ana.Gutierrez@inma.org