Three military veterans, two journalists from China, a TED speaker and award-winning journalists originating from 11 countries are among those selected for the sixth cohort of the Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program (EJCP) at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. The 21 journalism entrepreneurs from around the world will spend 100 days developing their skills and knowledge to strengthen and grow their niche ventures.
This online program provides accelerated training for independent journalists developing newsletters, podcasts, local sites, and other niche news products. The program, which begins March 21, includes live classes, mentorship, coaching, workshops and project-based learning.
“Independent journalism can be a lonely enterprise. Bringing rising stars together from around the world can help build a sense of community for entrepreneurial journalists,” said Jeremy Caplan, the EJCP’s founding program director. “We’re providing a support network and access to frameworks, ideas, feedback, guidance and resources that provide a boost on the path toward sustainability.”
Since the program launched in 2020, 148 creators from 38 countries around the world have been selected from more than 700 applicants. Graduates have gone on to develop flourishing new ventures, some of which were profiled in a recently-published series of six case studies.
Scholarship support for this program has been provided by the Meta Journalism Project, Substack, The European Press Prize, Media Lab Bayern, LION, FJUM, Swapstack, the Center for Cooperative Media, the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, and the Military Veterans in Journalism.
Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program Cohort #6
Ingrid Cobben
Current location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
Country of origin: The Netherlands
Pronouns: She/her
Ingrid Cobben is a journalist and nutrition educator from the Netherlands. She is keenly interested in food systems’ effects on our health. Her mission is to contribute to creating a better food environment for future generations. She spent most of her journalism career in London and Paris, producing stories for international news organizations such as the BBC, France24, Euronews, and Brut. She also has 2.5 years of experience working on innovation in journalism for WAN-IFRA, the European Journalism Centre, and Nieman Lab.
Donna L. Cole
Current location: Edgewater, Maryland, United States
Country of origin: United States
Pronouns: She/her
Donna L. Cole is an award-winning multimedia and investigative journalist. She’s worked in print, online, and broadcast media and is currently an independent reporter focused on the Chesapeake Bay region’s people, places, and natural resources. The professional work Donna is most proud of is her investigative reporting about the poisoning of bald eagles on the Delmarva Peninsula, which resulted in global media attention and numerous journalism awards. Donna is a veteran of the U.S. Navy. In her spare time, she rescues birds of prey and enjoys wildlife photography.
Siobhan Cunningham
Current location: Wasilla, Alaska, United States
Country of origin: United States
Pronouns: she/her
Voted the 2021 Small Business Award winner by the Women Veteran Alliance, Siobhan Cunningham, LCSW, is a four-time bestselling author and military mental health expert. As a U.S. Air Force Veteran, Siobhan served as social work officer to assist hundreds of military service members and families in coping with maladaptive behaviors, addiction, and family maltreatment issues that lead to mission failure. Now the founder and CEO of Empower Women Veterans, she helps prepare military women to find new meaning in their service experience by sharing their stories to cope, connect, and contribute to the zeitgeist of military life.
Flavian DeLima
Current location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Country of origin: Canada
Pronouns: he/him
Flavian DeLima is the editor, and publisher of Spinning Forward, a newsletter covering content creators of color in the Greater Toronto Area and how they succeed in the online economy. Flavian has been a freelance writer, journalist, coach, and trainer covering career transition and identity, entrepreneurship, the future of work, Web 3.0, and the creator economy from an equity and inclusion perspective. He’s written for the Toronto Star, Computing Canada, the Hamilton Spectator, Ontario Technologist, and Toronto Computes. He graduated from the Canadian Google News Initiative Startups Boot Camp and the American Express Canada Blueprint mentorship program for BIPOC-owned businesses in 2022. As well as publishing Spinning Forward, he is writing a book on how overlooked creators navigate and thrive in the online economy.
Tim Donnelly
Current location: Brooklyn, New York, United States
Country of origin: United States
Pronouns: he/him
Tim Donnelly is a New York City journalist and lifetime local news true believer. He served as editor of the website Brokelyn and was a staff writer at the New York Post and The Island Packet in Hilton Head, S.C. His writing has appeared in Curbed, the Village Voice, Eater, Death + Taxes, Inc., The Outline, the Atlantic, and Elsewhere. He’s now co-founder of The New York Groove, a service journalism outlet demystifying city life and helping everyone be the best New Yorker they can be. He’s also a nationally recognized competitive punner, and co-host of the wordplay variety show Vocabaret.
Olivia Feld
Current location: New York, New York, United States
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Pronouns: she/her
Olivia Feld is an experienced manager and award-winning journalist with over 13 years of experience in the news industry in the US and UK, including at CNN, BBC, Euromoney Institutional Investor, The Telegraph, and The New York Times. Most recently, she worked at the Google News Initiative, helping news organizations grow their audiences and revenue through scaled programming, training, and tools. She received the Alistair Cooke Fulbright Award and has a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Columbia University, where she was later a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economics and Business Journalism.
Jen Gennaro
Current location: Zachary, Louisiana, United States
Country of origin: United States
Pronouns: she/her
Jen Gennaro is the owner and editor of Porch & Parish (P&P) community magazine, serving a population of about 18,000 in Zachary, Louisiana. P&P inspires the Zachary community by showcasing the people, businesses & traditions that make the city excellent. Online, in print, and in-person, P&P brings the Zachary community together by sharing stories, information, and candid conversations. She plans to apply the information learned in the program in real-time to increase corporate sponsorships and advertising dollars to grow the magazine to profitability and offer more value and content to the brand’s community partners and supporters.
Francesco Guidotti
Current location: Florence, Italy
Country of origin: Italy
Pronouns: he/him
Francesco Guidotti is an Italian freelance journalist. He covers media, journalism, and the business models of news outlets. His work has appeared in The Fix Media, Valigia Blu, and Rolling Stone. He founded the podcast Giornalisti al Microfono in 2017. On the podcast, he interviewed innovative journalists who work to serve the public. With the help of five other journalists, the project now included blog articles and a newsletter. He co-founded Lo Spioncino dei Freelance, which collects payments from freelance journalists from Italian-language news outlets. It is a website that works thanks to the voluntary reports of journalists, uploaded anonymously. He holds a bachelor’s degree in modern literature.
Neidy Gutierrez
Current location: West New York, New Jersey, United States
Country of origin: United States
Pronouns: she/her
Neidy Gutierrez co-founded Slice of Culture, an award-winning media website in Hudson County, NJ. The website won the “Best Grassroots Journalism” award issued by the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists and was acknowledged with a New Jersey Civic Information Consortium Grant. She is a digital storyteller focusing on shedding light on the diverse communities and cultures in Hudson County while creating an online space for people of color to share their stories and find their voices by publishing multimedia pieces. She holds a B.A. in Communication and Media Studies with a concentration in Journalism from Saint Peter’s University.
Yaling Jiang
Current location: Shanghai, China
Country of origin: China
Pronouns: she/her
A translator and journalist by trade, Yaling Jiang has been driven to bridge the information gap between China and the English-speaking world. She launched the newsletter “Following the Yuan” to do that for an audience interested in learning about China through its consumers. As a business journalist, she is currently focused on Chinese consumers and Web3, and has previously written for the likes of South China Morning Post, CNN Style, Artsy and Vogue Business. She is deeply interested in emerging tech’s role in journalism and has degrees in communication and media studies, interpreting and translating, and journalism.
Hongqiao Liu
Current location: Paris, France
Country of origin: China
Pronouns: she/her
Hongqiao Liu is an award-winning journalist and independent policy consultant who has been tracking China’s environmental crisis and decarbonization since 2010. Following China’s unprecedented climate pledge, Hongqiao helped the renowned climate website Carbon Brief to launch a China desk and later founded the Shuang Tan newsletter. Her journalism brings facts, nuances, and context to the heated debate over China’s role in the climate crisis and fosters informed decision-making about the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. Hongqiao is a two-time TED speaker, and Vox named her a “visionary change agent.” She holds a master’s degree in international relations from Sciences Po.
Gerhard Mészáros
Current location: Vienna, Austria
Country of origin: Austria
Pronouns: he/him
Gerhard Mészáros is a freelance journalist who believes in the power of factual storytelling. He was an editor for the Austrian daily newspaper “Die Presse” and the Austria Press Agency. He contributed reports from countries like Nepal, Vietnam, and Indonesia to the German magazine “Business Punk”. Gerhard produced numerous award-winning magazines and sustainability reports for various companies. Having studied economics and communications in Vienna and Buddhist studies in Kathmandu, his recent work focuses on harnessing the power of storytelling to create a more sustainable and just society.
Rajat Mittal
Current location: San Francisco, California, United States
Country of origin: India
Pronouns: he/him
Rajat Mittal is a technologist, writer, and book publisher. As a technologist, he has worked at companies like Square and eBay. As a bookmaker, he has co-authored and published two children’s books on gender issues in India. His work has been featured in TIME, Reuters, BBC World, The Quint, and others. With his latest project, ‘Boyish’, a monthly newsletter, Rajat aims to re-examine masculinity in India. He also produces three new children’s books targeting gender norms affecting boys.
Beth Nixon
Current location: Connecticut, United States
Country of origin: United States
Pronouns: she/her
Beth Nixon is a photographer and producer. She is a program manager at a local radio station in Connecticut. She is the board chair for WINGS WorldQuest, a nonprofit that recognizes, supports, and builds a community around extraordinary women leaders in science and exploration. She has worked as a producer for MainStreet Media and the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour in Chicago, Looking East, and One World in New York. She has worked in Tokyo, Hong Kong, China, Greece, France, and Australia. She holds a BA from Princeton University, an MA from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a Certificate in Language and Literature from Peking University (PKU).
Lindsey O’Connor
Current location: Denver, Colorado, United States
Country of origin: United States
Pronouns: she/her
Lindsey O’Connor is a longtime journalist, author, and audio producer specializing in religion. She writes, tells stories, and engages about faith and meaning. She’s contributed to WHYY’s The Pulse, APM, The Texas Standard public radio, Washington Post, The Rocky Mountain News, Pacific Content’s podcasts, Christianity Today, Writer’s Digest cover stories, and many others. Of her five traditionally published books, the latest is The Long Awakening: A Memoir. She’s a former broadcaster, has reported internationally, was a finalist for an Audie award, and is a member of the Association of Independents in Radio and Religion News Association.
Yan Naung Oak
Current location: Yangon, Myanmar
Country of origin: Myanmar
Pronouns: he/him
Yan Naung Oak has spent the past decade as a passionate advocate for data journalism, civic tech, open data, and the power of new technologies to empower independent media and civil society. He founded Thibi, a consultancy in the space between data and design that works with organizations across Southeast Asia to help them develop their data literacy skills and utilize data more effectively for decision-making and storytelling. Yan is originally from Myanmar but splits his time between Myanmar, Thailand, and Singapore. In his free time, he likes to go on really long walks.
Ethan E. Rocke
Current location: San Antonio, Texas, United States
Country of origin: United States
Pronouns: he/him
Ethan E. Rocke is a New York Times bestselling author, award-winning photojournalist, and filmmaker. An Army and Marine Corps veteran, Ethan has specialized in reporting on the military and veterans for 20 years. He served as senior editor for culture and veterans at Coffee or Die Magazine until April 2022, when Ethan decided to focus full-time on independent journalism and a book and documentary about psychedelic therapies and research as it relates to veteran health. Ethan is a Pat Tillman Scholar with a B.S. in Photojournalism from Syracuse University and an M.S. in Multimedia Journalism from the University of Oregon.
Adrienne J. Romero
Current location: Jersey City, New Jersey, United States
Country of origin: United States
Pronouns: she/her
Adrienne J. Romero is an award-winning journalist. She is the co-founder of Slice of Culture, a New Jersey-based media site, which was awarded a grant by the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium in 2022 and also won an award from the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists in 2021. Currently, she is a freelance reporter for GameRant. Previously, Adrienne was the editor at FIGHTSPORTS.tv, a sports media outlet that covers all combat sports, where she interviewed fighters, including boxer Manny Pacquiao and UFC’s Dustin Poirier. From 2018 to 2021, she was the weekend reporter for The Jersey Journal, published on NJ.com.
Oluwadunsin Sanya
Current location: Lagos, Nigeria
Country of origin: Nigeria
Pronouns: she/her
Oluwadunsin Sanya is a feature writer and journalist. She currently leads the features team at BellaNaija, a digital platform dedicated to showcasing the best of Africa to its 5 million+ users. Oluwadunsin’s writing covers various topics, including social justice, culture, race, women, politics, and entertainment. She explores innovative ways to amplify the best of Africa and is committed to using the power of storytelling to educate, inspire and entertain her readers.
Mark Tyler
Current location: Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States
Country of origin: United States
Pronouns: he/him
Mark Tyler is the founder of Atlantic City Focus, a new hyper-local news platform that encourages the African American community to share its voice with the world and promote civic engagement. After completing his B.A. in Journalism from Washington Adventist University, Mark joined his hometown paper, The Press of Atlantic City. During his 10-year career there, he won investigative journalism and feature awards from the New Jersey Press Association. Mark is a member of the Tiny News Collective and serves on the Montclair State University Center for Cooperative Media’s Ethnic Community Media Committee, charged with promoting the success of news organizations around New Jersey. He prides himself on upholding the highest standards of journalistic integrity and has worked tirelessly to bring this news organization to life.
Evan Urquhart
Current location: Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
Country of origin: United States
Pronouns: he/him
Evan Urquhart is a journalist whose writing about transgender issues has appeared in Slate, the Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Politico, and more. His primary focus has been making the scientific and medical questions around transgender identities more accessible to a mainstream audience. Last October, he founded Assigned Media, an independent news site dedicated to tracking and fact-checking efforts to mislead the American public on transgender issues, particularly from the far right. Modeled after the way civil rights era journalism served communities shut out by mainstream newspapers, Assigned is a refutation of the idea that high-quality journalism is in conflict with trans people, trans acceptance, or trans rights.