Eric Karstens

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  • Let journalists be journalists: A case for grants to individuals

    Most journalists chose the profession for a reason: to satisfy their own spirit of discovery, to inform the public, to take sides with underdogs, to hold power to account. They did not become journalists because they wanted to develop business plans and manage a company. Therefore, journalism grants should provide more funding to individual journalists…

  • More than meets the eye: The EU as a funding source for journalism

    The European Union is entangled with journalism in so many ways that it can be hard to see the forest for the trees. That’s because journalism only appears on the label of very few programmes, but can well be an ingredient or theme of many others.

  • Innovation and social purpose: Public and philanthropic support for European journalism

    The three general-purpose news outlets with the greatest agenda-setting power over European politics – the Financial Times, The Economist, and the BBC – will very soon be based outside the European Union. What could the EU and European philanthropies do to nurture a supranational journalism landscape that might replace them?

  • Open, but not for free: Perspectives for non-profit newsrooms

    A great part of the current debate about future business models for journalism implies that news organisations need a strategy to remain commercially successful – or to become profitable in the first place. But what if news went non-profit from the get-go?

  • Philanthropy-funded journalism and public value

    Philanthropic donors big and small tend to invest with their eye on values rather than products: democracy, an informed society, better public health, the thriving of art, improved education, and so on – the idea of public value. Private individuals or foundations step up to provide the public with a good they deem necessary on…

  • How donors can enable quality journalism

    Most journalists chose their profession because they wanted to make an impact on society, but the news business, as it were, conspired against their good intentions. Yet with constructive approaches, a renewed focus on communities and audiences, and foundation support, journalism could break free from legacy structures.

  • Bridging the journalism-philanthropy gap

    It is an illusion to think that charity can bring systematic and lasting change to society without extending support to media. Considering the benefits to be gained by all involved – charities, journalism, and society – the key obstacles, as identified at Journalism Funders Forum London, are not insurmountable.

  • Communicating Europe: The State of Play

    Europe is making headlines. In the current decade, there has in fact been a surge in media attention for EU-related topics. What previously appeared next to impossible in most Member States, front-page stories involving the European Union in mainstream news outlets, has almost become a matter of course. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is not unequivocally favourable.

  • An introduction to the European Union

    The constellation of Council, Commission, and Parliament, all with their different tasks and characteristics, has proven to be a powerful mechanism to reach consensus even on highly contentious topics, and imposes well-functioning checks and balances on the European Union. That this is hard and takes time goes with the territory.

  • How not to win a journalism grant

    Here are nine common mistakes that are made by applicants for journalism grants, and especially by applicants from the journalism community – mistakes that make it too easy for juries to discard their proposals.