<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Throughout the twentieth century and during the first decade of the new millennium, journalism schools have maintained a teaching model founded on the continuation of standard practices in the discipline. This model disregards the importance of applied research in supporting innovation in pedagogy and in journalism. In this article, we argue that the integration of teaching and applied research is necessary in part to overcome the current crisis media organizations are facing in relation to the outdated business models established in the previous century. One of the study’s main conclusions is that the current lack of interaction between universities and the media industry should give way to hybrid teaching models that include multidisciplinary applied research projects focused on the development of new formats, graphic languages, techniques, processes and prototypes of content production platforms.</jats:p>