Device overview
What is the Community Social Media Support Fund?
The Community Social Information Media Support Fund helpsfinancially support the development of locally anchored media, providing information of proximity, and promoting the continuity of the link between the inhabitants of a district, a city or a region. The fund takes the form of a call for projects where only media that best meet the eligibility criteria can be supported.
Definition of a local media
Local social news media are defined as press publications, online press services (press website, newsletter, webtélé, webradio, etc.) or other electronic communications services to the public that:
- post regularly updated content of general interest
- are the subject of journalistic treatment
As tools for information, expression, creation and dialogue, local media build trust with citizens and are the best bulwark against «digital populism». Vector of information and social cohesion, they contribute to enhance and develop the image of territories, especially in the priority districts of city policy or rural revitalization areas and allow a wide audience to become familiar with the journalistic practice, thus participating in the objective of media education.
Creation context
By decree of 26 April 2016, the Ministry of Culture created a sustainable support fund dedicated to local social news media. These media (publications, press websites, radios, televisions, webteles, webradios, etc.) receive special attention and pursue four main objectives:
- they contribute to the strength of the local democratic debate by giving voice to the inhabitants of the territories, urban and rural
- they are a vector of information and a factor of social cohesion
- they contribute to enhancing the image of the territories and making it evolve
- they allow a wide audience to become familiar with journalistic practice, thus participating in the objective of media education
Am I concerned by this approach?
- Associations
- Private companies
All types of structures including themain object is to publish a local social media: associations, commercial law companies, economic interest groups, etc.
If the structure publishes incidentally one or more local social information media(s), it must be an association or foundation recognized as of public utility or affiliated with a federation recognized as such.
Structures are not eligible if
- they received at least one of the following grants the year before the application for support from the Support Fund for Community and Social Information Media:
- they receive at least one of the following aids:
- Support for online pluralism of press titles
- Financing the contribution to public broadcasting
- they are not in compliance with their tax and social obligations
- receiving the aid would put them outside the EU aid rules de minimis
The grant covers the overall operating expenses of the structure.
Procedure
The amount requested by the structure is free but must be proportional to the needs of the media, according to the financial forecasts of the publishing structure.
The fund has a budget of 1.8 million euros in 2024.
The grant takes the form of operating aid. It is awarded annually and by the publishing structure.
The aid shall be paid by decision of the Director-General for Media and Cultural Industries, within the limits of the annual appropriations available and in accordance with the distribution arrangements determined by him. The amount of aid paid is determined following the examination of the files, which makes it possible to assess whether the structure and the media satisfactorily meet all the criteria of the decree.
The decree of 26 April 2016 defines a set of criteria for assessing the eligibility of structures. Among them, the quality of the editorial project and its territorial, social and economic relevance will be decisive.
The aid is allocated according to the editorial offer of the local social news media. This editorial offer is evaluated against:
- its insertion in a territory and its contribution to the local social communication mission
- its contribution to integration and the fight against discrimination
- its dimension of media education and freedom of expression
- the association of the inhabitants to the project
- its ability to foster exchanges between social and cultural groups and the expression of different socio-cultural currents
- its contribution to local development and environmental protection
The following will also be considered:
- the diversification of the publishing structure’s resources and its ability to develop a sustainable economic model over time
- the professional training actions carried out by the publishing structure in favour of its employees or volunteer members and the consolidation of jobs within it, including jobs for professional journalists
- the participation of the publishing structure in collective actions in terms of programmes and training and its ability to form partnerships with other media
- the actions carried out by the publishing structure for young people and vulnerable populations
- the use made of the aid received, if any, under this Fund in the year preceding the application for support
- Applications open: 31 January 2024
- Application deadline: 22 March 2024, 23:59 (Paris time). No record may be filed or considered after that date.
- Notification of decision to applicants: information to be added shortly.
- To access the online form, click on the "Access form" button at the bottom of the page.
- Log in or create an account, then let us guide you.
Example of projects previously supported
With a budget of 1.83 million euros in 2023, the fund supported 131 media
A question?
If you have any questions about the Community Social Information Media Support Fund, please contact the Press Economics Office:
Media and Cultural Industries Branch (CMIB)
Bureau of the Economic Regime of the Press
mediasdeproximite@culture.gouv.fr
01 40 15 32 15
Address: 182 Rue Saint-Honoré, 75001 Paris
- Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (DRAC): mediasdeproximite.dracara@culture.gouv.fr
- Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (DRAC): mediasdeproximite.dracbfc@culture.gouv.fr
- Brittany (DRAC): mediasdeproximite.dracbretagne@culture.gouv.fr
- Centre-Val de Loire (DRAC): mediasdeproximite.draccvdl@culture.gouv.fr ; benoit.lecerf@culture.gouv.fr ; meng.chiv@culture.gouv.fr
- Corsica (DRAC): mediasdeproximite.draccorse@culture.gouv.fr
- Grand Est (DRAC): mediasdeproximite.dracge@culture.gouv.fr
- Guadeloupe (DAC): mediasdeproximite.dacguadeloupe@culture.gouv.fr
- Guyana (Directorate of Culture, Youth and Sports): mediasdeproximite.dacguyane@culture.gouv.fr
- Hauts-de-France (DRAC): mediasdeproximite.drachdf@culture.gouv.fr
- Île-de-France (DRAC): mediasdeproximite.dracidf@culture.gouv.fr
- The Meeting (DAC): mediasdeproximite.dacoi@culture.gouv.fr
- Martinique (DAC): mediasdeproximite.dacmartinique@culture.gouv.fr
- Mayotte (DAC): dac.mayotte@culture.gouv.fr
- Normandy: mediasdeproximite.dracnormandie@culture.gouv.fr
- Nouvelle-Aquitaine (DRAC): mediasdeproximite.dracna@culture.gouv.fr
- New Caledonia (MAC): michel.richard@nouvelle-caledonie.gouv.fr
- Occitanie (DRAC): mediasdeproximite.dracoccitanie@culture.gouv.fr
- Pays de la Loire (DRAC): mediasdeproximite.dracpdl@culture.gouv.fr
- French Polynesia (MAC): mediasdeproximite@polynesie-francaise.pref.gouv.fr
- Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'azur (DRAC): mediasdeproximite.dracpaca@culture.gouv.fr
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon (MAC): rosiane.de-lizarraga@culture.gouv.fr
The submission of applications for 2024 is now closed.
To submit a grant report:
Partager la page