How to apply: Submit this application by May 2, 2025. Participants will be notified by mid-May.

The Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) and Blue Engine Collaborative (Blue Engine) are looking for a few more medium- or large-sized newsrooms to join its second Solutions Journalism Sponsorships Accelerator, which will help you leverage your solutions journalism into new sponsorships to support your work. This is one of four accelerators that SJN and Blue Engine will lead over 2025 and 2026, each of which will include 8-12 news organizations and focus on a specific revenue stream.

By combining editorial excellence with revenue growth strategies, the accelerators aim to:

• Establish a direct connection between solutions journalism and increased community support through sponsorships, consumer revenue (subscriptions, membership, and donations), and philanthropy (major individual gifts and grants).
• Strengthen newsrooms’ capacity to generate and sustain solutions journalism coverage alongside effective revenue strategies.
• Foster cross-functional collaboration to embed editorial and revenue innovation into long-term practices.

The second accelerator, like the first, will focus on securing community sponsors to support solutions journalism coverage. It will begin June 12-13 with an in-person kickoff in Chicago, and will run for nine months, with a break or two over the summer. Participants should expect to dedicate roughly five hours per week to program activities, including coaching and group sessions.  Participating newsrooms also have the opportunity to apply for up to $10,000 in funding for solutions journalism and/or sponsorship efforts during the accelerator.

How to apply: Submit this application by May 2, 2025. Participants will be notified by mid-May.

Interested in the third or fourth accelerators? Express your interest here.

About the partners: Since 2013, SJN has taught 47,000 journalists and 600 newsrooms the solutions journalism framework, increasing engagement, trust and in some cases, revenue. Since 2016, Blue Engine has advanced business innovations that have enabled more than 1,200 organizations to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in incremental revenue.