New SMS Facility Call for the Western Balkans: Up to €7,000 for Journalism That Makes a Difference in Local Communities – Deadline 25 June

While the first grants from last year's cycle are already delivering equipment and stories to newsrooms across the region, the SMS Facility consortium has opened a new call for small and local media. This time, the focus is exclusively on content production. No equipment purchases, no administrative headaches, just journalism that tackles real problems. Less than a month ago, Dijalog Net published the first article in a series about the SMS Facility programme – a regional initiative worth €1.3 million that promised small newsrooms in the Balkans would no longer be invisible to major donors. That promise is being fulfilled. The first technical equipment grants (TOI) have been awarded. The first content production grants (MCP) are underway. And now, as we wait to see the first concrete results on the ground, a new call has arrived. The consortium led by the Center for the Promotion of Civil Society (CPCD) and partners – Thomson Media, SCiDEV, Kosovo Glocal, CDT, and the Metamorphosis Foundation has announced the Call for Proposals for Small Grants for Media Content Production – SMS SRB MCP 01/2026. The deadline for applications is 25 June 2026, 23:59 hrs. If you are a small, local media outlet in any of the six Western Balkan countries, this is an opportunity you cannot afford to miss.

What’s new? Numbers that matter

The total call budget is €210,000, and the maximum amount per project is €7,000. Crucially, the grant can cover up to 100% of costs. There is no co-financing obligation, although media outlets are encouraged to demonstrate additional funding sources. But that's not all. What sets this call apart from the previous technical one (TOI) is its core purpose: this call does not fund equipment. It supports and nurtures journalism.

Who Can Apply? Expanded Eligibility

Compared to last year's MCP call, the criteria have been significantly modified in favour of small media. Here are the key conditions:

• Legal status: A small media outlet registered as a company or a civil society organisation that owns a media outlet.
• Annual turnover: A maximum of €100,000 in 2025. (Last year the limit was €50,000 – a significant expansion that opens the door to more media outlets.)
• Number of staff: Fewer than 7 full-time employees, freelancers, and regular contributors combined in 2025.
• Registration date: No later than 31 December 2025. (Previously the cut-off was 31 December 2023 – another easing of conditions for younger media.)
• Location: Based in one of the six Western Balkan countries, preferably outside large urban centres.

What does "preferably outside large urban centres" mean? We already got an answer to this question from Dajana Cvjetković, regional manager of the SMS Facility programme, in our previous article: "It would be irresponsible to draw some strict 'red line on the map' and say 'up to here, yes, from here, no.' The whole picture is considered – relevance, community needs, quality of the application." So if you are from a suburban municipality and deal with rural or marginalised topics – your application can be seriously considered.

Mandatory requirement: MOVAT and Journalift

Before submitting your application, you must be registered on the Journalift platform and have completed the MOVAT – the Media Outlet Vulnerability Assessment Tool. If you have already done this previously, make sure to update your data. This is not a box-ticking exercise – MOVAT is a tool that helps map your real needs. And as we have already written in the second article of our series, honesty in MOVAT is a virtue, not a trap. "No, honest answers in the MOVAT tool will not harm your application. MOVAT is not a tool for ranking suitability, but for self-assessment and needs mapping," Cvjetković told us.

What can you fund? And what can't you?

This is the heart of the call and the place where many make mistakes. Let's clarify. Eligible costs:

• Staff salaries (except those directly producing content) and operating costs – up to 20% of the total budget
• All other costs that contribute to media content production, content distribution improvement, and audience engagement strategies

Ineligible costs - read carefully:

• Procurement of equipment – this is the most important difference compared to the TOI call. If you want a camera or a computer, this is not the call for you.
• Debts and interest charges
• Double financing
• Currency exchange losses
• Staff bonuses
• Credits to third parties

What does this mean in practice? If you are a newsroom that wants to produce a series of articles on river pollution, record a podcast on local corruption, or create an investigative story on the position of women in rural areas, this is the call for you. The money can go towards journalist fees, travel expenses, editing, and content distribution on social media.

How to apply?

Applications are submitted exclusively by email. Contact details and full guidelines for each country are available on the Journalift platform. You need to submit:

• Application form (Annex 2)
• Project budget (Annex 3)
• Supporting documents: scanned registration document, founding act/statute (if the goals are not evident from the registration), scanned balance sheet and income statement for the latest fiscal year (certified by an accountant and tax authority), certificates/awards (optional)
• All documents must be sent in PDF format. The deadline is 25 June 2026, 23:59 hrs.

One important note: the deadline for submitting questions to the coordination team has already passed -it was 10 June. But the answers to all submitted questions will be published on 16 June on the Journalift community page. Check that page regularly, you will find answers to questions you may not have had time to ask.

How are projects evaluated?

The evaluation table is divided into five sections, with a maximum of 100 points:

• Relevance (30 points) – how aligned your project is with the call's objectives and community needs. This carries the most points, and for good reason – your project must respond to a concrete problem.
• Project design (25 points) – clarity of objectives, logical connection of activities, realistic plan
• Budget (20 points) – precise, realistic, efficient cost-to-results ratio
• Added values (10 points) – innovation, contribution to equality and inclusion
• Capacities (15 points) – applicant's experience, transparency, team expertise

Why this matters

At a time when small media across the region are struggling to survive, calls like this are not just a financial injection. They are an acknowledgement that local journalism matters. That someone in Brussels, Berlin, and Sarajevo believes that what happens in Leskovac, Negotin, Valjevo, Prijepolje, Gjilan, Tetovo, or Nikšić matters. As Dajana Cvjetković said in our first conversation: "The real victory would be for newsrooms of two or three people to feel that they are not alone." This call is another step towards that victory.

Resources and documentation:

Full call guidelines and application templates for each eligible country are available at the links below:

• Albania – guidelines and templates on the Journalift platform
• Bosnia and Herzegovina – guidelines and templates on the Journalift platform
• Kosovo – guidelines and templates on the Journalift platform
• Montenegro – guidelines and templates on the Journalift platform
• North Macedonia – guidelines and templates on the Journalift platform
• Serbia – guidelines and templates on the Journalift platform

All documentation: Journalift community platform. Application deadline: 25 June 2026, 23:59 hrs 📌 SMS FACILITY SERIES – PREVIOUS ARTICLES This article is part of a series dedicated to the SMS Facility programme – a regional initiative worth €1.3 million, funded by the European Union and implemented by a consortium led by CPCD with partners from six Western Balkan countries. Article 1 – Project overview:
SMS Facility: How a Nostalgic SMS Acronym and €1.3 Million Are Trying to Save Local Journalism in the Balkans
A conversation with Dajana Cvjetković, regional manager of the programme, on why the project is called "SMS", what will be considered a victory in 2027, and how mentoring for small newsrooms will work. Article 2 – Practical guide for newsrooms:
7 Questions Small Newsrooms Are Afraid to Ask
Dajana Cvjetković answers without sugarcoating: from justifying salaries when one person does everything, to what to do when the EU logo becomes a target. Article 3 – A grantee's story (coming soon):
*How Dijalog Net scored 90/90 on the TOI call and why digital accessibility is a question of journalistic integrity.*