The American Press Institute invites U.S. local and community-based media to apply for our Influencers Learning Cohort 2025. Participating news organizations will receive $3,000 to establish connections and collaborate with local influencers or trusted messengers.
This program builds upon the work of a 2024 cohort that fostered local media collaborations with trusted messengers and influencers on nonpartisan journalism related to the elections. It’s important that news leaders learn from these sources as well as pursue opportunities to work together. Many of the lessons from that initial cohort are featured in API’s Guide to Influencer Collaborations.
In the 2025 cohort, API will support and enable up to 12 U.S. local and community-based media organizations to:
- Experiment with how they collaborate with influencers around their local reporting, e.g. content guides, Instagram or TikTok storytelling, or live events
- Join cohort learning calls to exchange ideas, solve problems with peers and provide insights to API for developing additional community engagement and influencer resources and programming for 2025
API will prioritize applications that contribute new learnings from these partnerships. For this second learning cohort, we are particularly interested in collaborations that extend beyond content marketing and one-off stories or posts, as well as experiments with clear goals and proposals for how metrics might demonstrate whether those outcomes were achieved. (Review Steps 1 and 2 in the API influencer strategy process for additional insights on goals and metrics.)
To be eligible to apply, news organizations must:
- Be a local or community media organization based in the United States
- Demonstrate an interest in collaborations of local impact, i.e., with those trusted messengers and influencers within the geographic area of the news organization
- Complete the application in full (including a signed W-9) and commit to completing their project and spending all funds by July 31, 2025
The deadline to apply is 8 p.m. EDT on Monday, March 31, 2025.
USE OF FUNDING
The use of grant dollars may go to efforts such as (and for example only):
- Funds to offset expenses in partnering with an influencer or trusted messenger
- In-person event costs associated with any collaboration (for example, venues, food, etc.)
- Promotion of influencer + local news-created content (e.g. partnered Instagram posts)
EXPECTATIONS OF PEER LEARNING CALLS
This program will involve three peer learning calls, which the project leader and up to two fellow news organization colleagues will attend.
Pre-project
Two 90-minute calls will take place in May 2025.
- Call #1, Thursday, May 8, 2025, from 1-2:30 p.m. EDT – This call will give news organizations tools to assess their local influencer landscape (who are they, where are they, and how platforms differentiate) and to imagine the specific organizational goals that can guide them to potential partners.
- Call #2, Thursday, May 15, 2025, from 1-2:30 p.m. EDT – This call will guide news organizations through a “How might we…?” exercise to flare on up to 20 story ideas they could pursue in nonpartisan partnership with a trusted messenger for publication.
Post-project
One 90-minute call will be scheduled for August 2025.
- Call #3, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, from 1-2:30 p.m. EDT – This call will involve news organizations sharing outcomes, where they see possibilities to build on their work for the future and insights that will help resource creation beyond the cohort.
OTHER PROGRAM DETAILS
The grant term will run from the award through July 31, 2025.
A short learning memo (narrative report) and accounting of expenses (financial report) will be due Aug. 15, 2025.
API plans to produce editorial content based on insights gleaned from the calls and learning memos, and grantees must participate in interviews and answer questions that help promote their news organization’s successes and insights. Shared learnings may take the form of case studies, how-tos on platform-project best practices or further hurdles to sustaining the work.
Organizations must also submit their tax ID and valid W-9 when applying. Those selected must sign a grant agreement that affirms their understanding of all conditions.
Questions may be directed to grants@pressinstitute.org.
TIMELINE
Milestone |
Deadline |
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Application window |
Monday, March 24 through 8 p.m. EDT Monday, March 31 |
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Applications from organizations due |
8 p.m. EDT on Monday, March 31 |
|
Notifications of acceptance and funding sent to news organizations |
Monday, April 14, 2025 |
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Learning call #1 |
1-2:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 8, 2025 |
|
Learning call #2 |
1-2:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 15, 2025 |
|
All funds spent |
Thursday, July 31, 2025 |
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Learning memo and financial report due |
Friday, Aug. 15, 2025 |
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Learning call #3 |
1-2:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Aug. 26 2025 |
