Velocidad is an accelerator program for Latin American digital media which took place between 2019 and 2021. With the objective of empowering and promoting independent journalism in the region, 10 media organizations were selected for intensive growth and sustainability development.
Under the direction of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and SembraMedia, with the financial support of Luminate, the program was developed to promote sustainable business models and deepen knowledge of their audiences. The selected media companies received resources and training to enhance the work their teams were already doing.
In 2021, during phase one, the 10 selected media organizations received consultancy, participated in seminars, developed new partnerships, strengthened and diversified their teams.
In phase two, six of these media organizations progressed in the accelerator program with additional funding and the support of tactical and strategic consulting.
365
10
09
countries
represented
16
months of
acceleration (2020-21)
23
webinars
83
05
instructional
guides
06
case studies
387
new contracts signed
152
workflow changes
56
58
53
17
awards received by the
selected media
USD 817,000
Acceleration funds
invested in the
10 selected media
organizations
USD 5,198,180
New revenue
generated by the 10
selected media
organizations
6.36
Multiplication
of investment
(Income / Investment)
29%
Content services
49%
Grants
14%
Audience revenue
4%
Consulting services
4%
Advertising or sponsorship
income
Nearly 51% of the total new revenue earned by Velocidad grantees came from sources other than grants, that were directly related to the business models and action plans they developed during their participation in the accelerator.
To measure audience growth for the selected media organizations, we compared analytics numbers from the before and after participation in the accelerator.
"During the accelerator, we discovered key workflow processes and areas of our organization, including the finance area. Some of our achievements: we expanded production, multiplied our customers, refined internal organization, and expanded into new markets and business areas. In two countries with medium-term agreements, we doubled our turnover from that of last year and presented ourselves to investors."
"Among the biggest lessons learned fromVelocidad, the one I think I should highlight the most is the importance of having a sustainability team. Understanding that was key, and it still is. When we started working on membership, we thought that I was going to dedicate half of my time to membership and the other half to reporting. Clearly, that was impossible, and Velocidad helped us realize the importance of having a team that would be dedicated to memberships and financial sustainability."
"Today, when we start discussing whether a Ponte employee’s work is good or not, we first take a look at the work processes in place: are those processes the best they can be to accomplish the task at hand and meet Ponte's objectives? We always ask ourselves this question. Almost always, we find that the problems we have are with the processes, not the people.”
"The most important milestone for RED/ACCIÓN since its launch a little over three years ago is that, in the upcoming quarter, we will break even on the operations side, and that is without counting grants. We would not have reached this milestone if it had not been for Velocidad, with both the financial assistance and the support."
"A major lesson we learned was to understand that we needed to start on the path toward balancing content production and business priorities. Despite the fact that, with Velocidad, we created a business strategy team that helped us generate income, which immediately helped us open new revenue channels; when we saw the bigger picture by working with a financial consultant and creating a financial follow-up chart, we realized how little we were investing in the business side of our organization, and how all of our efforts were going toward operating costs. We realized that, if we wanted El Pitazo to be sustainable, we had to invest more on the business side."
"Once we did the internal reorganization that allowed us to focus more clearly on our proposition of value, the next challenge was to communicate that, to audiences, to partners and, above all, to potential funders. Given the intense competition in this last area, it was essential to access knowledge and practices to millimetrically build pitches that could open new doors for our projects and dreams.”