Meet the Project C ONA26 Creator Cohort!

Earlier this year, in partnership with The Lenfest Institute for Journalism and the Online News Association, we put out a call for independent journalists working in the creator model to apply for the second Project C Creator Cohort at ONA26. Once again, the response blew us away.

This year, we focused on U.S.-based creator-journalists working at the hyperlocal level – people building direct relationships with their communities and doing the kind of original reporting that often goes uncovered. 

We received 60+ applications from journalists across the country – covering local government, immigration, food, public safety, the environment, education, and so much more. They're publishing on newsletters, podcasts, radio, and their own websites. Selecting just 10 was genuinely hard.

We're thrilled to introduce you to them:

⭐ Arianny Valles | Pendiente Mi Gente — Radio/audio/social media

Arianny Valles is a journalist, communicator, and radio producer with over 30 years in the media world across Venezuela and U.S. She works at the intersection of technology, social media, art, and community. She’s the host and producer of Noticias Enlace, the morning news show on La Onda 1190 AM/99.5 FM, and the founder of Pendiente Mi Gente — a platform devoted to uplifting and serving the vibrant Latino community in Arizona’s Valley of the Sun. On top of all that, Arianny leads Arianny Rocks LLC, her digital communication consultancy, where she fuels purpose‑driven marketing, impactful content, and community connection.

⭐ Ben Camacho | Inadvertent — Investigative journalism/documentary photography

Ben Camacho is a multi-award winning investigative journalist and documentary photographer whose work focuses on state-sponsored violence and the communities impacted by it. Inadvertent reports on local government, the police, politicians and corporations — bringing transparency to some of the most secretive agencies and offices in Southern California. He was sued twice by the City of Los Angeles in a failed effort to censor public records. Ben co-founded The Southlander, LA's first investigative news cooperative, and co-founded the West Side Storytellers, a documentary production team whose flagship project received the Charles M. Rappleye Investigative Journalism Award from the Los Angeles Press Club. In 2023, he was named a "Distinguished Journalist" by the Society of Professional Journalists-LA.

⭐ Bryan M. Vance | Stumptown Savings — Newsletter/website/social

Bryan M. Vance is a Portland, Oregon-based local journalist and strategist turned content creator. He publishes Stumptown Savings, a hyperlocal news outlet (newsletter, website and social media) focused on helping Portlanders navigate rising food costs through smarter shopping. A 2025 Project C Top 50 Creator-Model Journalist, Bryan brings a mix of public media, legacy, and startup news chops to the creator journalism ecosystem.

⭐ Cody Short Johnson | Codyonair — Podcast/audio/video

Cody Short Johnson is a veteran journalist, producer, podcaster, and media personality based in Birmingham, AL. With over a decade of experience in media, Cody has built a media business named after the blog that started her career while in college. She's worked as a digital news reporter, radio reporter, and TV producer, and is the recipient of the Edward Murrow Award for her coverage of Deion Sanders as head coach at Jackson State University. In 2025, Cody earned a Master of Science degree in Communications with a focus in Journalism from Syracuse University.

⭐ H Kapp-Klote | Chicago 312 — Newsletter

H Kapp-Klote is an independent journalist and creator of Chicago 312, a weekly local news roundup investigating how power works in Chicago. He has a background in movement communications, including work with the Chicago Teachers Union, Forward Together, and housing organizing groups across the city. He is currently studying for his amateur radio license.

⭐ Maureen Kelleher | Board Rule — Newsletter

Maureen Kelleher is a veteran Chicago education journalist who now produces Board Rule, a deeply reported weekly newsletter on Chicago Public Schools and its board. A former high school English teacher, she spent eight years as an award-winning associate editor at Catalyst Chicago — whose reporting won honors from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the International Reading Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists — and has since contributed to Education Week, The 74, Chalkbeat, and the Center for American Progress. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale and holds a master's degree in teaching from the University of Chicago.

⭐ Megan Raposa | Sioux Falls Simplified — Newsletter

Megan Raposa is an award-winning journalist and a lifelong South Dakotan. She founded Sioux Falls Simplified in 2021 after nearly six years working at the legacy print publication and has since developed a passion for improving the civic health of Sioux Falls through simplified, bullet-pointed local news.

⭐ Monique O. Madan | Two Can Be True — Newsletter

Monique O. Madan is an award-winning investigative journalist and founder of Two Can Be True, a narrative newsletter and brand that opens the reporter's notebook to the public — blending investigative storytelling with lived experience. Shaped by nearly two decades in newsrooms, her work is anchored in a core belief: two things can be true at the same time. Madan has spent her career covering immigration, criminal justice and government accountability at The Miami Herald, USA TODAY, and The Markup. Her reporting has also appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, The Boston Herald, and El Nuevo Herald. She is a 2025 Women's Leadership Accelerator fellow at ONA, a Lead Storytelling Advisor at The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, and the principal of The Madan Creative Group. A graduate of Harvard University and Emerson College, she's based in Miami.

⭐ Natalie Bencivenga | Facts Over Fear — Newsletter/video/podcast

Natalie Bencivenga is a socially conscious, award-winning independent journalist and entrepreneur based in Pittsburgh who uses her platforms to build equity in communities. She launched Destination with Natalie Bencivenga in collaboration with WQED and hosts and produces Week in Focus for the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Her previous series Facts Over Fear won a Keystone Media Award in 2024. A Pittsburgh Magazine 40 Under 40 honoree, she has also penned the nationally syndicated Ask Natalie advice column since 2015. She holds degrees in Social Work, Biology, and Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh.

⭐ Nicole Jeanine Johnson | Nicole the News Lady — Investigative journalism/newsletter

Nicole Jeanine Johnson is a writer and multimedia journalist who covers Black stories at the intersection of equity, education, politics, and liberation, with a focus on Chicago's South Side and southern suburbs. Her accountability reporting has exposed how power, policy, and community intersect — from municipal corruption to environmental justice and childcare access. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Defender, the Harvey World Herald, City Bureau, Southside Weekly, WBEZ, and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a graduate student at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism and a former fellow at Capitol News Illinois. She is also a published author and holds degrees from the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, and National Louis University.

⭐ Additionally, news-focused creators from Lenfest’s 2026 Philadelphia Media Founders Exchange News Creators Network, a four-month incubator that builds partnerships between independent news creators and local news organizations, will also be joining the cohort in Chicago.

We hope you'll take a moment to explore and support what these journalists are building. Each one is doing original, community-rooted work that often doesn't get the national spotlight it deserves. Give them a follow, subscribe to their newsletters, and share their work widely. This is what the future of journalism looks like.

We'll see you in Chicago — March 30–April 1! (It’s still not too late to register to attend!)

🙏 Huge thanks to The Lenfest Institute for Journalism and the Online News Association for making this cohort possible.