GFMD members approve 2026–2030 strategy, betting on collective power to sustain journalism in the age of AI
29. June 2026
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Adopted at GFMD’s annual General Assembly meeting, the strategy repositions GFMD as the “ecosystem connector” for public-interest information, committing its 250+ member community to build shared infrastructure and a collective voice on funding, AI, and platform governance.
GFMD members have approved a new five-year General Strategy for 2026–2030 at the network’s General Assembly. It sets out how a community of almost 250 organisations working to support public-interest journalism and civic information, spanning 85+ countries, will work together to sustain public-interest and civic information through the hardest conditions the sector has faced in a generation.
Read the full GFMD General Strategy 2026–2030
Why now
The world GFMD’s last strategy was written for, in 2021, no longer exists. The assumptions made in 2021 no longer apply. Funding is being withdrawn as major institutional donors pull back. Democratic norms, international law and human rights protections are being dismantled in key markets. Generative AI is shifting the production and distribution of information into systems that the public-interest community neither owns nor governs. Response from the journalism community and public interest information ecosystem remains fragmented, with no shared infrastructure and little collective leverage.
The strategic answer
GFMD’s response is to do what only a network can. The strategy rests on a clear thesis: if the community is connected through shared infrastructure, represented by a credible collective voice, and governed by standards it sets together, then it can negotiate funding, regulation, technology, and crisis response on better terms than any member could alone.
It repositions GFMD as an ecosystem connector and infrastructure facilitator. We are going into the next period not as a programme implementer or funder substitute, but a network that turns dispersed activity into shared infrastructure and collective leverage. As the strategy puts it, GFMD does not replace members’ work; it makes that work possible, connected, and collectively stronger.
The work is organised around two reinforcing priorities:
- Collective Power: helping members negotiate and influence the systems where rules and money are set, by translating where power sits, identifying leverage points, and enabling member-led coalitions to act together.
- Shared Infrastructure: helping the field build shared systems no single organisation can build, govern, or sustain alone: technical back-ends, market connectors, shared standards, and legal and operational support.
GFMD delivers both through four functions: convene and connect, shape the rules, build and share infrastructure, and represent and respond. Together they add up to a stronger, better-equipped community that can negotiate funding on better terms, influence policy and regulation, shape technology and standards, and respond collectively in a crisis, so reliable public interest information keeps reaching people everywhere.
Why AI sits at the centre
Few forces make the case for collective action more sharply than artificial intelligence. The strategy commits GFMD to focusing its advocacy on fewer, higher-impact domains, platform governance and AI among them; translating fast-moving regulatory developments into usable guidance for members; carrying the community’s collective positions into the rooms where AI rules are written, including protections for journalism’s intellectual property within AI systems; and working to reduce the field’s dependency on Big Tech.
Where the money really is
The strategy also reframes the sector’s funding crisis. Dedicated journalism funding totals only around $0.7–0.9 billion a year, while far larger pools already circulate within the media system — roughly $170 billion in public-service and publisher revenues, and a further $45–50 billion in the creator economy. The constraint, the strategy argues, is not the money in the abstract; it is the absence of standards, marketplaces, commissioning models, and bargaining power that would redirect existing pools toward public-interest work. GFMD’s role is not to invent new funding pools, but to help the field navigate, connect, and reshape the ones that already exist or are on a growing trajectory.
Public-interest digital infrastructure: the Journalism Cloud Alliance
The strategy marks an evolution in GFMD’s work. While continuing its longstanding commitment to journalism support, press freedom, and sustainability, it places greater emphasis on the digital infrastructure that independent media need to operate safely, securely, and sustainably in an increasingly platform-dependent environment. It is recognising public-interest digital infrastructure as a critical pillar of media resilience and democratic participation.
Over the coming years, GFMD will expand its engagement in technology and digital infrastructure alongside its core media-development work: taking part in the policy debates shaping public-interest digital infrastructure, democratic resilience, and community-driven technological alternatives; positioning media cloud infrastructure as essential to media independence; advocating for dedicated digital funding mechanisms; and ensuring media-freedom perspectives are represented in broader industrial and digital policy debates.
“This strategy plans for the world as it actually is, and our members have endorsed that honesty,” said Mira Milosevic, Executive Director of GFMD. “No organisation can face funding collapse, eroding press freedom, and the disruption of AI on its own, but this community does not have to. GFMD already holds the trust, the convening power, and the translation role the field needs. Our job now is to turn that into shared infrastructure and collective leverage, so that when our community speaks on AI policy, on funding, on the systems journalism runs on, the institutions that hold the money and the rules are listening.“
What changes in practice
- From scattered listings to funding and market intelligence
- From one-off coordination to shared infrastructure and marketplaces
- From broad advocacy to fewer, higher-leverage policy wins
- From undifferentiated services to persona-led member activation
How this strategy was made
Through 2025 and early 2026, GFMD ran member and expert consultations and built the strategy around four scenarios (used as stress tests, not predictions) validated with Steering Committee members and external experts. The result is a living strategy, designed to adapt as conditions change.