Celebrating the success of 30 Latin American news innovators

The third edition in Latin America

This Innovation Challenge in Latin America was open to the entire ecosystem from news publishers to digital-only outlets, news startups, associations or NGOs, academics and independent journalists. Applications ranged from projects focused on increasing reader engagement and/or revenue from readers, developing and diversifying business models, combating misinformation, increasing trust in journalism, reaching new audiences, improving workflow efficiency and exploring new technologies.

We received 353 applicants from 21 countries in the region. All projects were evaluated by a team of experts and a final jury that were impressed by the diversity and the quality of the proposed projects. We saw creative solutions by regional media focusing on the development of inclusive membership models and content distribution for younger people. Others seek to generate resources through technology and collaboration with readers by developing new subscription platforms, capitalizing on the power of blockchain technology, and betting on artificial intelligence to help fight misinformation or increase engagement.

Of the applications we received, more than 31% percent were from regional and local publishers, while 23% were from online-only publishers.

Some highlights include:

• Abril Editorial Match: This project from Brazil seeks to use artificial intelligence to better understand their readers’ behavior across Abril’s brands, engaging them through a predictive experience of relevant articles.
• El Colombiano: This Colombian project, “Loyalty Wall,” seeks to implement a platform for digital subscriptions, which includes a dynamic paywall and loyalty rewards for audiences.
• Promoting information access in Latin America (PIALA): This Mexican platform will enable journalists and researchers to make the most of the freedom of information acts (FOIAs) across the region. Users will be able to create, submit, manage, organize and follow up on all their FOIA requests at the same time in a quick and easy way.

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