Europe’s ‘varied’ but ‘limited’ journalism and media funding landscape is smaller than the continent’s philanthropy towards art and culture.
According to the ‘Journalism and Media Funding’ report and survey published by the Philanthropy Europe Association (Philea), on average, funders allocate 6 percent of their budget to journalism and media. That figure dwindles to just 3.2 percent, excluding the largest funder and when comparing the combined total annual expenditure to the combined annual expenditure for journalism and media in Europe.
That’s in stark contrast to funding for the arts and culture. A 2022 Philea study showed that around 25 percent of annual budgets went towards the arts and culture, with a median portion of almost 41 percent.
Most funders primarily provide financial support, split between multi‑year unrestricted core support and short‑term project‑based support, ‘underscoring the importance of flexible funding in this field’, said Philea. Grants of 100,000 euros appeared most typical.
In a potential bright spot, funding for journalism and media in Europe is on the rise.
Philea gathered evidence that showed half of Europe’s funders have increased their budgets towards journalism and media funding since 2024, while a third say they would like to increase their budgets in 2026.
However, such optimism is tempered. Philea’s latest survey was conducted shortly after sweeping cuts made by USAID, revealing data that lagging behind potential fluctuations in media funding since.
Gravitating towards nonprofit media and digital
Nonprofit media attracted the most direct support, versus public backed media, citizen journalism, and for-profit media.
Funders also favoured resourcing investigative journalism over daily reporting, solutions journalism and ‘thematically aligned content’ such as climate and health.
And as television and print dwindles, funders have their focus on digital platforms.
‘Here, funders slightly more often support the building of digital infrastructure; holding Big Tech accountable; and innovations in journalism. Support is notably less often provided to media literacy programmes,’ said the report.
Local & regional as well as national media are supported the most, with international media outlets closely trailing.
Smaller outlets rooted to grass-roots change, decolonial and anti‑racist narratives, fact‑checking organisations, information platforms for journalists, start‑ups providing services or products to the journalism sector, news collectives, non‑profits working on systems change in the media, social platforms, and data‑science/data‑visualisation organisations,’ were also in Philea’s survey.
Geographic spread
Hungary, Germany, Italy, Poland and Belgium were among the top five most frequently mentioned countries where media support has gone to.
The UK, Slovenia, Spain, Romania, France closely followed them. Greece, Bulgaria and Lithuania were the least mentioned recipient countries.
Most funders cited their continued motivation was down to protect democracy.
Shafi Musaddique is the news editor at Alliance magazine
