Announcing the 2025 News Navigators Coaching Certification Program
The Fund for Equity in Local News (FELN) seeks candidates to participate in News Navigators Coaching Certification, a pilot program that starts in September 2025. Coaches who complete certification will be eligible to coach in two initial cohorts of FELN publishers in calendar 2026.
FELN is looking for coaches from diverse backgrounds and regions across the United States. Ideal candidates have worked with local publishers or news organizations to help them with technology, revenue, or fundraising operations. News Navigators aims to certify coaches as revenue and technology generalists, assisting publishers with a range of strategies that lead to greater sustainability via new and improved revenue streams.
FELN will pay coaches who complete the 2025 certification program a $5,000 stipend and subsidize coaching for 60 FELN member publishers in 2026.
In the pilot program, from September to November 2025, 10 to 12 coaches will be certified as “News Navigators” who will then be available in 2026 to coach publishers on tech stack improvements and digital revenue strategies. Each publisher will also receive a grant to help fund their tech and revenue strategies.
Coaching certification begins the week of September 2. Certification sessions take place once weekly through mid-November. Each session will include guest speakers from around the industry and cover a different aspect of mentorship, technology and revenue strategies for local publishers. By the end of the pilot program, coaches will have completed a workbook and report, including a sample technology stack review and digital revenue plan. The goal is to certify coaches who can advise on general strategies and pull in resources for publishers from across the local news business.
News Navigator curriculum guides coaches through assessments of a news publishing organization’s tech stack and financial health, identifying potential problem areas to fix, and revenue strategies to pursue. Throughout the program, the coaches will engage with leaders in the news tech and revenue ecosystem, learning more about the resources available for local news publishers.
Applicants should demonstrate cultural competence and empathy with publishers from various backgrounds and circumstances. Applications are encouraged from individuals who identify as Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latino or People of Color (BIPOC), women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people with disabilities, and others from historically underrepresented or marginalized communities. Spanish-speaking coaching applicants are in demand for work with Spanish-language and multilingual publications.
News Navigators is funded by the Google News Initiative. FELN is a partnership between the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the National Association of Hispanic Publishers (NAHP), and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN Publishers), representing more than 400 member publishers across the country. FELN is a component project of the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation (ANF).
For more information, please register for an informational webinar on August 8, 2025, at 1 pm Eastern. Register here. A recording will be available.
If you have specific questions, please write to Todd Stauffer at todd@aan.org. To apply for the Coaching Certification program, please complete this form.