Deadline: 15 June 2020
With the support of the Google News Initiative, Metis – A Business mentoring program has been launched for women founders of independent digital media in Latin America with the aim of reinforcing the work of media leaders in the region.
The program surprised by the speed and quality of its impacts. From its inception with its first call, which had more than 100 applications from across Latin America, to creative proposals to deal with crises towards the end of the program, more representativeness, visibility and strengthening of a network for women within the ecosystem was achieved.
In this new edition, the program will provide specialized business mentoring for six (6) months to ten (10) native digital media founded by women in Latin America. The founders of the selected media will participate in monthly meetings with international leaders in the digital media ecosystem.
In turn, five (5) complementary selected will be chosen to participate as assistants in these meetings. They will also have free and complete access to the SembraMedia school, where they will find training on different business models, equipment management and technology to grow their media.
During the mentoring period, new sources of income will be explored and implemented, new alliances will be created, and selected media will be given visibility through joint work. At the end of the program, the female founders will share their learning in virtual events to support and inspire other journalists.
Conditions
Each winning mentee will receive a letter of commitment in which they will find the basic guidelines to follow to guarantee their continuity in the program. In exchange for mentoring, access to a global network and the accompaniment of international referents, the mentee will commit to:
- Attend weekly meetings with your mentor at a mutually agreed upon time. In the event of an eventuality, a rescheduling of the session may be requested 48 hours before the previously agreed meeting.
- Before more than two consecutive cancellations (with or without prior notice), the coordination of the program will decide the continuity or adaptation of the mentoring.
- Attend a monthly meeting with a referrer and the entire Metis team. The mentee agrees to participate in at least 70% of the meetings.
- In case of missing 3 meetings without valid justification or notice, Metis reserves the right to suspend the progress of the program.
- The mentee and the mentor cannot go more than 20 days without communication. In this situation, Metis reserves the right to suspend the progress of the program.
- Provision of (analytical) data on the medium: access to traffic dashboards to the web, social networks, newsletters and any other type of product they generate.
- Commitment to the provision of information to carry out a case study about the end of the program (obviously nothing will be published without the consent of the media)
Eligibility Criteria
Metis seeks to identify media companies founded by women with strong leadership skills that have the potential for growth and diversification in their business model. They believe that these characteristics are what make it possible to strengthen the impact of their journalistic work in their communities.
Therefore, to apply to Metis, the media must meet the following criteria:
- Have one or more female founders who are in an active role within the organization.
- Be digital natives or with a growth strategy focused on digital.
- Aim for economic independence, regardless of their ideological position.
- Journalistically cover topics of public interest.
- Have more than 6 months of periodic publication prior to application
- Have an audience based in Latin America.
- Operate primarily from a Spanish-speaking Latin American country: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela.
For more information, visit https://www.sembramedia.org/metis-mentoria-para-periodistas-emprendedoras/
