This issue is sponsored by Pew Research Center
Hi there,
Last week, 20 early-stage creator journalists from across Europe, Africa and the Middle East started the second cohort of the Journalism Creators Startup Lab and I am honored to introduce them to you today.
Seventy-five journalists applied from 33 countries. Choosing 20 was hard, and we didn't do it by follower count. The Startup Lab is built for the stretch before a journalist has a sustainable business, when the reporting is real but the audience, the brand and the revenue aren't there yet. So most of this group is pre-launch or just launched, and very few are making money from it yet. What struck me reading the applications is how familiar the problems are. Different countries, different languages, different platforms, and the same snags our North American cohort hit this summer: pinning down the niche, publishing consistently and always, always figuring out where the money comes from.
HOW THIS ROUND WORKS
The Startup Lab is our free program for early-stage independent news creators, run with support from the Google News Initiative. Our first cohort wrapped this summer (here's what those 20 learned). This one kicked off last week with orientation and runs 10 weeks: an orientation week, eight weeks of lessons and live labs, and a capstone week in mid-December. It's the same core program, rebuilt for a cohort spread across a lot of time zones.
MEET THE COHORT
A few members of the cohort asked us not to name them publicly for now. That's their call, no explanation needed, and they're every bit as much a part of this group. Here's everyone else:
Dahlia Kholaif (High Wycombe, UK) is building Politics on Low Heat (سياسة على نار هادئة), an Arabic-language podcast about what's happening across the Middle East and North Africa and how it's being covered. She records it while she cooks dinner, which is a lovely way to spend time thinking about often difficult, dense topics.
Claire Miller (Cardiff, UK) helped turn local data journalism in the UK into a real discipline, then watched the cuts take it apart. With Words + Numbers, she's making the numbers that measure people's lives make sense to the people they measure.
Amélie Reichmuth (Stockholm, Sweden) is a narrative journalist developing a new cross-platform project. She'll tell you about it herself when she's ready, and I can't wait.
Adebusola Adeboyejo (Porto, Portugal) is building A Pitch Black Joint, on migration, identity, belonging and ordinary life in the Black and African diaspora, for people who usually end up either missing from the coverage or flattened by it.
Ricardo Pérez-Solero Llosa (Madrid, Spain) runs The Tolerant, EU legislative news for Europeans who want to know what Brussels is doing to their lives. He built an AI-assisted system to track the legislation that matters.
Michele Calamaio (Rome, Italy) is building Dispatches on Two Wheels, investigative reporting on overlooked environmental, migration and human rights stories, reported from a motorcycle. 🏍 It's not a gimmick. It's how he gets to places a fly-in correspondent never reaches.
Elise Cutts (Graz, Austria) writes Reviewer, too, a science newsletter that's really about the machinery of science: the systems and incentives that shape what gets discovered, what gets believed and what happens when research meets the world.
Laszlo Bognar (Sopron, Hungary) writes A Lajtán túl (Beyond the River Leitha), Austrian current affairs in Hungarian for the Hungarian-speaking community in and around Austria, cross-border commuters included. That's about as precise a niche as I've ever seen, and I mean that as a compliment.
Cristina Maza (Berlin, Germany) is relaunching Lazo Magazine, underreported stories for anyone living across borders: immigrants, expats, diasporas, dual citizens and third-culture kids. New stories are on the way.
Zanele Mji (Johannesburg, South Africa) writes narrative nonfiction about South Africa's socioeconomic issues, mostly for international publications, then turns that reporting into multi-part deep dives on social. She also makes the podcast Golden City. Serious reporting, translated for people who will never read the magazine version.
André-Pierre du Plessis (Cape Town, South Africa) runs Buitelyn, which connects the dots between the global economy, international affairs and tech, in Afrikaans. The name means "outline," and that's the whole idea: trace the shape connecting events that look unrelated.
Kevin Mofokeng (Gaborone, Botswana) has spent years reporting on African politics, governance, development and climate inside other people's newsrooms. Now he's building an independent home for that work, without giving up an inch of editorial independence to do it.
Hyeladzira Adamu (Jos, Nigeria) edits Purple Africa, stories of women, by women, from Northern Nigeria. It launched in September, and she's thinking hard about the part most new publications skip: how to keep the writers writing.
Tala Alsharif (Palestine) runs Female Chimeras, a bilingual Arabic-English platform telling the stories of Palestinian women with the depth and dignity headlines rarely allow.
Jayson Casper (Beirut, Lebanon) writes Middle East Harmony, reporting on religion in the Middle East from 15 years in the region. It's written, on purpose, to lower the temperature. Imagine that.
Gia Chaudry (UAE) writes about technology, AI and digital culture, from the ethics of satellite infrastructure to how people fall in love on apps, with bylines in WIRED, Cosmopolitan Middle East and Grazia. Now she's building out a newsletter of her own.
STAY TUNED
I'll have a lot more to share as the cohort gets rolling, including their capstone projects in December. For now I just wanted you to meet them. If one of these projects is in your language or your corner of the world, go subscribe. At this stage, early followers matter more than almost anything.
And if you're thinking about going independent, or you're already out here and craving some company, you're exactly who Project C, and this program, is for. Check out the Startup Lab and sign up to hear about future cohorts.
🤝 FROM OUR SPONSOR
The midterms are approaching. Are you ready to make sense of the polls? Journalists and content creators will encounter plenty of polling data – from Americans' views on key issues to their attitudes toward the country's direction. Numbers to Narratives, an interactive course from Pew Research Center, is designed to help you understand public opinion polling and communicate survey findings clearly and accurately. Through real-world examples, quick knowledge checks and practical tips, you'll learn what polls can (and can't) tell you, how to avoid common pitfalls, and how to turn polling data into accurate, compelling stories.
THE ROUNDUP
Two reporters known for covering ICE raids in LA, Izzy Ramirez and Memo Torres, say they've left LA Taco and are going independent. Izzy and Memo each shared the news on Instagram, and LA Taco has posted its own account. We don't know the full story, so we'll leave it to them. What's clear is how closely readers tie their loyalty to the people doing the reporting.
Axel Springer launches a creator platform, starting with star podcaster Paul Ronzheimer. Legacy publishers keep building homes for their individual talent. Journalism.co.uk
Syracuse's "A Hard Reality" report on independent local journalism is making the rounds. Read the full report, not just the slides: it defines "independent local news" as independently owned outlets producing original local reporting, not owned by a chain or legacy company, from solo operators to bigger newsrooms. Syracuse IDJC
The Ringer is pivoting from video podcasts to Substack. A Spotify-owned shop picking a newsletter platform is worth noticing. Defector
Substack and dynamic podcast ads. Adweek
"The line between journalists and creators is blurring." The PR trade press is starting to say it out loud: they're coming to you, and the trust you've built is the asset. Provoke Media
Kyle Buchanan's left the times to launch at standalone podcast. Vulture’s Nick Quah checks in on how it’s going as Buchanan prepares to launch. Vulture
🎧 Apply by Nov. 2: Audible's Creator Development Program comes to Los Angeles, Dec. 14–16. Three days of masterclasses and workshops on ideation, production, distribution and marketing, plus studio time to develop your project. Selected creators get a $450 stipend. It's open to writers, filmmakers, performers, podcasters and other storytellers who want to bring their work into audio (you don't have to be an audio person), and you need to be 18+ and in Greater LA. Details and application →
FROM OUR AWESOME PROJECT C MEMBERS
Missed Blair Hickman's "Help I'm Drowning: Let's Work on Capacity"? The recording is in the Replay Room for members, with the breathing and writing exercises and the one piece of ruthless prioritizing most of us skip.
The tech stack survey results are coming. Thanks to everyone who responded. We'll share them here ❎ in the next couple of weeks, with a version you can explore on the Project C site.
Congratulations to Amanda Shendruk, who celebrated one year of Not-Ship by introducing a partial paywall. 💶 Also to Becky Bullard, whose email list grew 88% in 48 hours after she asked for an email address before giving out her ballot guide; Kaitlyn Arford, who launched her first institutional membership with the Television Critics Association; and Rick Ellis, whose reporting a veteran TV critic called "relentless."
Julie Rose put Project C's social video training to work: one video hit 60K views on Instagram and 17K on TikTok in 24 hours, about three times her usual. 🔥 Rose Thomas Bannister turned lost footage into the story in her Modo di Bere TV trailer.
Members get at least one live event a month, usually more. All times ET.
Tuesday, Oct. 27 · 3 PM · Legal Office Hours with Julian Sarafian. Bring the contract that's been sitting in your inbox. Spots are limited, so grab yours fast. RSVP →
🚨 Wednesday, Nov. 11 · 1 PM · Is Indie Journalism Right for Me? Layoff Season Edition. A free (and anonymous) webinar. Monique O. Madan, Matt Brown and Becky Bullard each talk about how they made the jump, then Blair Hickman joins the panel for your questions. Register →
Thursday, Nov. 12 · 1 PM · LGBTQ People and Topics: Centering the Stakeholders, Saving Democracy. GLAAD's news team on covering LGBTQ people in the midterms, with a story pitch session. Bring ideas. RSVP →
⏱ Friday, Nov. 13 · 11:59 PM ET · Project C 100 nominations close. Nominate yourself, nominate each other, nominate someone we've never heard of who's become a vital read or watch for you. Nominate →
See who's building independent journalism, and where. The Independent Journalism Atlas maps it 2,500+ verified creator-journalists, organized by beat, platform, and geography.
How this newsletter is made: A human (hi, it's Liz 👋) writes, edits and makes every editorial call here. I use Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant, as a research tool — each week it sweeps my sources and assembles the first draft of the links roundup. Every link and every word gets a human read before it reaches you.
