Stars4Media highlights Importance of network & skills exchange

Until now, we have learned how the winning Stars4Media projects have  worked on Digital Transformation, applied Revenue Diversification  and how the Knowledge Exchange is at the core essence of their work. Today, we focus on the Importance of network and skills exchange featured in two projects, both part of the Business transformation track of the Stars4Media NEWS programme.

APOLLOS is a collaboration project between the Belgium-based publisher Mediahuis and German BotTalk. This project focuses on the state-of-the-art of the text-to-speech technology. It reflects the needs and strategic directions of Mediahuis  to build valuable digital relationships with their customers, in the form of subscriptions. 

During the first phase, Mediahuis workedwith BotTalk on exploring how journalistic text can be provided in audio format in a scalable and flexible way, with the final goal of converting more readers into digital subscribers. In the project’s second phase, the idea is to move forward by defining more concretely  a common text-to-speech platform that will help Mediahuis multilingual content offer, currently available in more than 8 languages (including Dutch, English, French, German, Portuguese, Luxembourgish, Frisian, Gaelic). Nevertheless, because local and regional news have gradually found their way to digital readers, the text-to-speech platform should support an even greater variety of dialects.

The ‘Boosting Community Engagement Models for European Fact-Checkers is a cooperation between Maldita from Spain and Facta.news from Italy. 

About the project, Samuel Allan, Projects and Impact Technician for Maldita, explains: ’Two leading European fact-checkers, Maldita.es  and Facta.news  are collaborating to develop a cross-border community engagement model for fact-checking organisations that will transform their impact, and enhance the sustainability of their business models.’ Samuel’s project partner and Editorial Manager at Facta News, Camilla Vagnozzi,  continues: ‘With the increasing intensity of disinformation crises, fact-checking organizations need engaged audiences to ensure the sustainability of their work.’  Drawing on Maldita.es’ successful community model, we are exploring ways to replicate it within the Italian context with the aim of increasing Facta.news’ audience engagement by 100% and developing the Maldita.es model as a product that can be provided to other organizations.’Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram to learn more about our beneficiaries and – why not – join our LinkedIn Community?