Eight weeks to turn your creator journalism into a real business.
The Journalism Creators Startup Lab pairs a free 8-week workshop with a full year of coaching and community — plus elective training straight from YouTube and Google's AI teams. No follower minimums. No experience requirements. Just journalists serious about the work.
Built for journalists figuring it out in public.
The creator journalism model is real, growing, and working for a generation of journalists who chose to build independent businesses around their work. But the infrastructure to support early-stage creators — real training, real community, real tools — is still catching up.
The Journalism Creators Startup Lab is designed to close that gap. Participants sign on for a full year of support: an 8-week workshop covering every major dimension of building a sustainable creator journalism business, elective sessions led directly by Google and YouTube teams, three months of post-cohort coaching, and a year-long membership in the Project C community.
Two regions. One program.
Cohort 1 — North America
Our inaugural cohort is currently underway with a small, carefully selected group of early-stage creator journalists from across North America. Cohort 1 was invitation-only.
- ● ~20 participants
- ● Invitation-based selection
- ● Hybrid: asynchronous learning with a weekly live lab
Cohort 2 — EMEA
Our second cohort opens the program to early-stage creator journalists based in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa. Applications are open now and reviewed on a rolling basis.
- ● Open application — no invitation required
- ● Apply by midnight ET, Friday, September 4
- ● Same free curriculum and year of support as Cohort 1
Eight weeks. Every dimension of the business.
Pre-recorded video lessons drop each week, followed by a live lab. Project C attends every session. Guest experts join for weeks focused on trust, revenue, and safety.
Onboarding
Platform orientation, community norms, tooling setup, and a diagnostic workshop to map where you are and where you want to go.
Strategy & Positioning
Define your niche, sharpen your elevator pitch, and build the founder's mindset you need to treat your journalism like the business it is.
Editorial Strategy
Build a content calendar that actually works. Design an editorial system that keeps you consistent without burning you out.
Trust & Credibility
Learn the Trusting News framework for building audience trust. Guest session with Trusting News on how to communicate your journalism's credibility.
Growing Your Audience
Audience personas, segmentation, calls to action, and the full reader funnel — from first-time visitor to loyal subscriber.
Revenue Foundations
Region-specific monetization lanes. Build a realistic revenue strategy and get at least one income stream live or in pilot by end of week.
Owning Your Audience Data
Google Analytics, platform analytics, and AI-assisted analysis. Build a quarterly review practice that tells you what's actually working.
Safety, Legal & Risk
Guest session with CPJ on personal safety planning. Basic contracts, liability protection, and how to protect yourself and your work.
Capstone & Showcase
Peer feedback and a live showcase panel with regional mentors to close out the cohort.
Beyond the core curriculum, participants get access to bonus live sessions taught directly by Google and YouTube's own teams — including a "Getting the Most Out of YouTube" session with YouTube's Partnerships team, and a hands-on walkthrough of Google's AI tools for newsrooms (Gemini, NotebookLM, Pinpoint, and Trends) with Google News Initiative trainers.
Leave with more than a syllabus. Leave with a real business.
By the end of eight weeks, you'll have live work to show for it — not just knowledge, but systems, strategies, and at least one revenue stream in motion.
A sharp positioning strategy
A clear niche, a defined audience, and a pitch that actually says what you do and why it matters.
A working editorial system
A content calendar and publishing rhythm you can sustain — not one you'll abandon three weeks in.
A revenue lane in motion
At least one monetization strategy live or piloted by Week 5, built around what actually makes sense for your audience and region.
An analytics practice
A quarterly review framework so you stop guessing and start making decisions based on what your audience is telling you.
A safety and legal foundation
A personal safety plan, a basic contracts framework, and the clarity to protect yourself and your work from the start.
Community and credibility
Peer relationships that last beyond the cohort, plus eligibility for the Google Emerging News Voices list after program completion.
We've done this before. Many times.
The Journalism Creators Startup Lab is built on years of Project C training programs that have helped journalists clarify their vision, grow their audiences, and build businesses that last.
Going Solo
A six-session workshop for journalists who haven't launched yet. Graduates have launched newsletters and video channels, sharpened their audience focus, and built peer networks that are still active today.
Local News Accelerator
A one-day intensive for newsroom leaders and solo founders, delivered with Medill's Local News Initiative at Northwestern University. Content strategy and media-kit reviews were the standout modules.
Muslim American Creator Journalism Cohort
An ongoing cohort co-led by the Going Solo team, designed with and for Muslim American creator journalists. Proof that the playbook works across communities, contexts, and regions.
From the people who've been through it.
It's the playbook on how to do this — and how to do it sustainably — from the people who actually understand the landscape, the data, and the strategies, with no fluff.
The feedback from this group has been incredibly helpful and validating. Doing the course homework has helped me make a lot of progress, especially around mapping out my audience and understanding how to pitch my business to others.
Going Solo helped me let go of a ton of self-doubt and get direct answers on issues I was getting mixed information on during my own research.
I've gained a lot of self-confidence here to stand up for myself and my brand.
Three months of coaching. A year of community.
The program doesn't stop at Week 8. Every participant stays connected through post-cohort coaching, long-term check-ins, and a full year of Project C community membership.
Participants also keep access to the elective YouTube and Google AI tool trainings from the live labs, and become eligible for the Google News Initiative's Emerging News Voices programs for emerging journalists.
- ✓ Three months of post-cohort coaching calls — 1 to 2 sessions per month
- ✓ One year of Project C community membership — 200+ journalists sharing resources and collaborating
- ✓ Trust and credibility assessment using the Trusting News framework
- ✓ Elective access to live YouTube and Google AI tool training sessions
- ✓ Eligibility for the Google Emerging News Voices list
- ✓ 90-day and 12-month follow-up check-ins to track your growth
FAQ
Still have questions? Email us and we'll talk it through.
Applications for Cohort 2 — EMEA — close September 4.
Early-stage creator journalist based in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa? Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so the sooner you apply, the better.
Future cohorts are open to all.
This program is designed to grow — future cohorts will open to applicants from across the journalism creator community. Drop us a line and we'll make sure you hear about it first.