The South Korean nonprofit investigative newsroom Newstapa was founded in 2012 by a group of journalists who had been either dismissed or marginalized in their newsrooms for demanding editorial independence. Since then, much has changed in the country’s political and media landscapes. Searching for sustainability in the midst of these upheavals has been a wild ride, writes Lee Taehoon for GIJN.
While exiled reporters may now be practicing journalism from a place of relative safety, repressive governments can still interfere with their ability to report stories, reach audiences, and make a living. Charlotte Alfred spoke to exiled reporters for GIJN.
Re:Baltica, a nonprofit newsroom based in Riga, has experimented with different forms of storytelling and types of funding to sustain its work over the past eight years. Its co-founder Inga Springe shares what she’s learned along the way.
Revenue options for nonprofit newsrooms now include everything from story sales and membership to crowdfunding and even cryptocurrency tokens. But experts say fundraising – for better or worse – remains the foundational key to the survival and growth of nonprofits around the world, writes Rowan Philp for GIJN.
Journalismfund.eu is an independent nonprofit that promotes cross-border and in-depth journalism in Europe. In this interview, Journalismfund.eu’s Managing Director Ides Debruyne shares his thoughts on “impactful” journalism and why investigative journalism is booming.
The Guardian has re-built its business around membership, and last year it appointed its executive editor for membership, Lee Glendinning, who formerly led the Guardian US. She explains how she uses her role to experiment and test new approaches.
After NJ Advance Media spent lots of time and money to find and clean up data for a police accountability project, it decided to sell this data, while still keeping its database free to the public. Reporter Stephen Stirling tells OpenNews’s Erika Owens how this works.
A new report highlights the obstacles to survival for media startups in the Global South, and checks in on the progress of two dozen of them to see how they’ve fared over the past three years. It includes advice from some of these outlets’ editors for those thinking of launching their own startups. A recurring theme: Before you do anything else, secure a couple years’ worth of funding.
Media startups from the Arab world have had to battle censorship, lack of funding and unstable political environments. In a roundtable hosted by GIJN in December at the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism forum in Jordan, founders of four startups shared their innovation tactics to survive and thrive, including renting out excess office space, training, events and paid newsletter subscriptions.
Robyn Vinter, founder of a UK-based investigative news website for working-class millennials and people outside the “London bubble,” says she made a conscious choice not to try and make a “big profit” from it. “We’re not trying to be millionaires,” says Vinter.“We’re trying to do investigative journalism, and you can’t really do both, I don’t think.”
