As the news industry struggles with funding shortfalls, layoffs, declining trust and rapidly changing technology, journalists — from freelancers to newsroom leaders — have professional and financial security top of mind. In a recent IJNet Crisis Reporting Forum session, Muck Rack Editorial Director Andrew Mercier and Ajor Executive Manager Samanta do Carmo discussed how journalists can keep afloat and thrive in an increasingly uncertain professional environment.
José J. Nieves is an ICFJ Knight Fellow developing resources to help newsrooms in exile plan for a sustainable future. Originally from Cuba, Nieves has been running his independent media platform El Toque from exile since 2019. From afar, El Toque became known for an innovative tool it developed: an exchange rate calculator for the informal market in Cuba. This tool is the first of its kind for Cubans, and has greatly impacted those within the country and El Toque’s success as a publication.
ICFJ Knight Fellow Mattia Peretti worries that journalists have lost touch with their mission — or are at least confused about it. In his keynote address given at Media Party Buenos Aires, he explores the value of journalism and financial sustainability in the industry.
How to generate money – “plata” in Spanish, the slang used in many Latin American countries – is one of the most pressing concerns among journalists and media outlets today. In the Spanish-language video podcast "Hablando en Plata," ICFJ Knight Fellow José J. Nieves discusses different business models for media outlets.
Talha Ahad’s team at The Centrum Media, Pakistan’s first digital news network, has produced exclusive visual storytelling on Guantanamo Bay prisoners, war survivors, transgender activists and more since it launched in 2017. The news organization quickly grew its audience to millions with in-depth, independent video news coverage, in a country dominated by traditional media.
Liberia is taking steps towards greater press freedom through media sustainability, according to Knight International Journalism Fellow Luisa Handem Piette. Recent improvements in legislation encourage free reporting, but bolstering media sustainability remains pivotal. Piette, with support from UNESCO and ICFJ, brings together media owners and journalists in monthly exchanges to formulate plans for increased private investment in Liberian media, with promising results.
