Assessments for Newsrooms

Investigative Journalism Media Assessment Program (IJ-MAP)

GIJN offers on-going assessments to build capacity of watchdog media around the world. To stay informed of the latest opportunities, you can subscribe to the GIJN newsletter here.


Are you an independent media organization producing watchdog journalism that wants to strengthen both your journalism and your organization’s capacity? GIJN Advisory Services offers small-to-medium media outlets free, in-depth assessments of their organization, and follow-up with expert advice in priority areas.

Producing strong investigative journalism is demanding, leaving little time to review an organization’s strengths and weaknesses and to assess what is needed for future success. Organizational assessments require hard-earned resources as well, which is a barrier to smaller, independent media outlets. GIJN would like to help. 

Selected organizations will participate in GIJN’s Investigative Journalism Media Assessment Program (IJ-MAP), with access to consultants who will work with them to do an overall assessment of such areas as: investigative and data journalism; newsroom organization; marketing; audiences; business capacity; fundraising and revenue streams; management and organizational development; safety and security. All consulting will take place online.

Please give careful consideration to the criteria below:

– Your organization must be a legally registered entity and can either be a for-profit or not-for-profit company or organization. 

– Your organization’s mission should include a focus in full or in part on watchdog journalism and in the application you will be asked to provide links to three recent watchdog stories published in the last year.

– You have been operating for at least one year. 

– You agree to commit the necessary time to complete the process which is about 2-3 days per month for 5 months.

– You are willing to fully engage your management team in the process.

– You are willing to provide financial statements and be transparent about your processes. 

– You will provide feedback during and at the end of the process

Interested media outlets should contact us at advisory@gijn.org


Note on Support: GIJN gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ford Foundation’s BUILD program, Porticus, and our general support donors in making this project possible. Interested donors: please contact us at secretariat@gijn.org