Reference Circle’s Autumn Knowledge Exchange with Civitates brought our communities together ahead of the inaugural Breakwater Festival – and carried the conversation about organisational sustainability into its wider programme.
Independent journalism needs more than strong reporting. It also needs sustainable organisations, supported teams and relationships that make it possible to learn from one another.
On 24 September, Reference Circle members and Civitates grantees gathered at the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk for a day of knowledge sharing and peer learning. Held ahead of the inaugural Breakwater Festival, our Autumn Knowledge Exchange created space for honest, practical conversations about the challenges facing independent public-interest media.
Learning from shared challenges
Small-group peer consultations explored financial resilience: diversifying income, developing donor and reader relationships, managing grants and navigating cash-flow pressures. Drawing on questions participants had shared beforehand, the discussions focused on the realities of running independent media organisations.
The aim was not to find a single model for everyone, but to compare experiences and identify useful ideas, practices and peer connections.
We also explored governance, organisational growth and retrenchment, sustainable workloads, leadership continuity and team care, alongside ways to strengthen direct audience relationships and reduce dependence on platforms.
A joint session with MOST – Media Organisations for Stronger Transnational Journalism – offered practical lessons from six small newsrooms developing their own AI guidelines, connecting decisions about technology to editorial values and everyday workflows.
Across the day, one theme kept returning: resilience is not only about resources. It is also about relationships, trust and shared learning. There was space for difficult questions, practical ideas to take home – and plenty of laughter along the way.
From peer exchange to Breakwater
The gathering was also a bridge into the first Breakwater Festival.
As an editorial partner, Reference Circle contributed to the festival’s organisational and sustainability pier, bringing our network’s experience into a wider conversation about the conditions independent journalism needs to thrive.
This partnership reflected a shared belief: the work behind the journalism deserves attention alongside the journalism itself. Funding, governance, audience relationships and team wellbeing shape an organisation’s ability to sustain its reporting and pursue its mission.
Reference Circle members contributed across the festival programme, sharing approaches to community-powered investigations, audience engagement, documentary storytelling and sustainable funding models.
Across four days, Breakwater brought together more than 400 participants from over 20 countries, with 89 sessions and more than 100 speakers. Yet its value was not only in those numbers. It was in the conversations between sessions, the recognition of shared challenges and the first sparks of cross-border collaboration.
Keeping the connections alive
We returned from Gdańsk with renewed energy and a reminder of how much we can learn – and build – together. Messages about follow-up conversations, new partnerships and cross-border project ideas have continued to arrive since the festival.
Thank you to Civitates and its grantees for sharing this exchange with us; to MOST for enriching the conversation; to Breakwater for hosting our communities and welcoming Reference Circle as an editorial partner; and to every member and participant who contributed with openness and generosity.
Gdańsk gave us space to connect. The next step is to keep those connections alive.