| February 9, 2021 Ten selected news publishers across the Middle East will be able to speed up the transformation of their newsrooms to ensure they are both audience-centric and sustainable. The programme will provide intensive coaching, training and mentoring over three months to senior editorial and commercial participants. The participants will be drawn from the 10 news organisations which are selected from applications by WAN-IFRA members in the region. A formal call for applicants will go out next week. WAN-IFRA and Facebook have partnered to launch the new initiative. Mechthild Schimpf, Director Middle East of WAN-FRA said: â All over the world, newsrooms are having to transform to stay relevant and sustainable â and not only because of COVID-19. We are delighted that through this partnership with Facebook, we can be a catalyst and help news publishers in the region develop the skills and generate ideas to move their newsrooms and products to the next level.â