The International Journalism Festival weekly round-up. Stay up to date by subscribing to our newsletter, by following us on Instagram or Telegram, or by joining us on Bluesky.
Statement from AP, Bloomberg News, Reuters on White House press pool access. Julie Pace will be a #ijf25 speaker
Jeff Bezos declares opinions questioning “free markets” no longer welcome at The Washington Post. Months after insisting he would never allow his personal interests to influence the Post’s content, one of the world’s richest men decides opinions contrary to his “will be left to be published by others.”
Not-so-soft power. Inside Russia’s campaign to turn African journalists into Kremlin mouthpieces
“Fight before it is too late”: arrest of Georgian journalist signals media crackdown. The arrest and hunger strike of Mzia Amaglobeli marks a defining moment for press freedom in Georgia
I have an idea—not to save The Washington Post, but to save its journalism. This isn’t a fantasy. It has been done before in countries facing the same challenges as the US
24,000 new subscribers in two weeks – Denník N’s wildly successful anniversary campaign. The Slovak newspaper Denník N has just had an extremely successful subscription drive. We spoke to Chief Digital Officer Tomas Bella to analyze the keys to this success
The elaborate hierarchy of “cleanliness” in media funding. Our industry’s funding fixation has evolved into a sort of moral purity test and it’s reinforcing the authoritarian narrative that all journalism is inherently compromised by its financing
Nearly 80 percent of the US gender pay gap is driven by women having flatter work experience arcs compared with men. McKinsey’s Kweilin Ellingrud, Sven Smit, Chris Bradley, Olivia White, and coauthors explore how diverging work experience patterns shape the pay gap in a new McKinsey Global Institute article.
Backlight Lighthouse Reports. Don’t leave AI reporting to the experts. This month, we discuss how journalists can investigate the ways AI is shaping the world around us and push for accountability from the companies and governments responsible for its use. Karen Hao will be a #ijf25 speaker
An app to follow freelancers in the field. Noosphere, a video-based platform for independent journalists, launches today. Jane Ferguson and Joel Simon will be #ijf25 speakers
Future newsrooms, now: Zetland’s Lea Korsgaard on journalism as a service – and a product. The Danish co-founder and Editor in Chief shares big wins: mobilising community for sustainability and growth; the untapped power of inhouse marketing, why newsrooms should build their own tools – and what the influencer trend means for newsrooms in transition. Lea Korsgaard will be a #ijf25 speaker
Three Syrian journalists in exile. After the fall of the Assad regime, three Syrian journalists in exile talk to iMEdD about the challenges and opportunities of independent journalism in Syria, amid an unstable and uncharted media landscape
Mill Media proved that audiences would pay for local news. The Long Story with Simon Owens. Joshi Herrmann will be a #ijf25 speaker
From ‘trad news’ to AI: the evolving journalism landscape. A visual breakdown of how and where news is produced in 2025. Liz Kelly Nelson will be a #ijf25 speaker
Corruption, nepotism and the “Wi-Fi system”: how Kyrgyzstan became a hub for smuggling cars into Russia. Kyrgyzstan has become a hotspot for the smuggling of European cars into Russia. Despite Western sanctions, these luxury vehicles are increasingly on display in the windows of Moscow dealerships. They are part of a highly lucrative industry, investigated by now-imprisoned journalists and involving friends of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov’s nephew and a top Lithuanian athlete
Image credit: screenshot of Associated Press announcement of 26 February 2025