BIRN held a four-day online training course in audience-engagement for 30 journalists from Balkan and Visegrad countries from November 5 to 8. Thirty journalists from ten media outlets were given training in engagement journalism at the workshop held by Ariana Tobin, engagement editor of ProPublica, and BIRN’s experienced trainers and mentors Aleksandra Bogdani, Ana Petruseva, Gyula Csak and Katarina Zrinjski.

Within the programme, the selected media outlets had an opportunity to participate in training and mentoring in order to bring innovation to their newsrooms, engage communities and develop investigative stories by using the B-engaged tool – a digital tool designed and developed by BIRN for the purpose of audience engagement. The training course, which combined technical skills and editorial knowledge was the first step in the programme to help media outlets develop their engagement stories.

Audience Engaged Journalism Grants are part of the Media Innovation Europe (MIE)project, funded by the European Commission. The programme is run by the International Press Institute, the Thomson Foundation, the Media Development Foundation and BIRN and is intended to empower media outlets as they navigate the digital transition, giving them journalistic tools and skills in diverse products and business structures in order to reach audiences and bring sustainability.