A needs-assessment forum - ”Empowering Quality RussianLanguage Journalism in the Baltics” - was arranged in Riga by the Baltic Centre for Media Excellence (BCME). The forum was first of its kind, gathering 4o leading representatives of minority language media outlets from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and media academics from top journalism schools in the region. As the Russian-speaking independent media community is one of the key target groups of the BCME training programme, the forum aimed to identify gaps in the skillset and business models that expert trainers could later fill in.