In Old News

Leon Yin is an investigative data journalist recognised for his work on how technology impacts society. We got to interview Leon in April 2023. At that point, he was working at The Markup, a non-profit newsroom focused on being the watchdog of the tech industry. During his time there, he worked on stories that made even the chair of Congress’s antitrust subcommittee ask questions about the ethics of how Google shows search results. Since then he has joined Bloomberg Technology, where he's continuing his investigative work. For the interview transcript, head to inoldnews.com

Pei Ying Loh is the co-founder of The Kontinentalist, an organisation that tells stories about Asia using data. Since its start, The Kontinentalist has worked hard to find creative ways to tell data stories on topics ranging from how the rubber industry in Singapore and Malaysia was shaped by colonialism, to Asia’s favourite alcoholic beverages. The team also offers workshops on the essentials of data storytelling, based on the tools they’ve used for their own stories. We wanted to learn more about how The Kontinentalist approaches stories, and what things they’ve learned that can be helpful for others. You can find the transcript of this interview and other interviews in our newsletter at inoldnews.substack.com

Does a good opinion piece have to be backed up by facts? Or does the word ‘opinion’ give journalists the freedom to make statements that don’t require verification? We asked Bobby Ghosh, a columnist and editor at Bloomberg Opinion, because we wanted to better understand the difference between a good opinion piece and a bad opinion piece. Bobby has been at Bloomberg for five years, where he writes, commissions and edits opinion columns with a special focus on geopolitics. He’s also a member of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. Bobby has also worked as a Global Affairs Analyst for CNN and as Managing Editor of Quartz. We met Bobby when he was our Editor in Chief at Hindustan Times. And so when we caught up with him at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, we got to ask him a few questions. You can find the transcript of this interview and other interviews in our newsletter at inoldnews.substack.com

Journalists are often described as the watchdogs of democracy. It can be a difficult career choice with poor pay and very real threats from those in power. And Al Jazeera’s show, The Listening Post, is working to keep tabs on what the world’s media is up to. We asked Meenakshi Ravi, executive producer at The Listening Post, how her team approaches this global mandate when we met her at the International Journalism Festival in April. You can find the transcript of this interview and other interviews in our newsletter at inoldnews.substack.com

Kiri Rupiah is the Communities Editor at The Continent, a publication that covers stories from around Africa in their weekly newspaper. The paper is distributed over WhatsApp, Signal and email. We spoke to Kiri over a call about The Continent’s journey since its inception two years ago. You can find the transcript of this interview and other interviews in our newsletter at inoldnews.substack.com

Harlo Holmes is the Chief Information Security Officer and Director of Digital Security at the Freedom of the Press Foundation. She works with journalists and media organisations to help make the digital space safer for them and their work. She’s also contributed to The Guardian Project, a collaborative open-source project that develops secure apps for users all over the world. You can find more details at guardianproject.info and freedom.press has additional digital security resources. We got to ask Harlo about some really complex but common issues journalists face. And what they can do to prevent and navigate them. Read the transcript of this and other interviews at inoldnews.substack.com

We spoke to The City's Executive Director Nic Dawes about the role of local journalism in New York City.  Nic Dawes is the Executive Director of The City, a non-profit newsroom covering local stories in New York. He serves on the board of investigative journalism organisation AmaBhungane, Coda Story and the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism. Before joining The City, Nic was the Deputy Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. He spent three years at Hindustan Times as the Chief Content Officer, and eight years at The Mail & Guardian, where he started as an Associate Editor before becoming the Editor-in-Chief. We bumped into Nic at the International Journalism Festival and stopped him in the middle of the street to ask him about his work at The City, and the role of local journalism in New York City and beyond. This is the fourth episode in our Dispatch series from the International Journalism Festival 2022. You can read the full transcript for this interview as well as other interviews in our newsletter: https://inoldnews.substack.com/

This week, we’re bringing you our interview with the managing director, Mercy Abang, and editor-in-chief, Tina Lee, of Unbias The News (a newsroom by Hostwriter). We wanted to speak to them about the work they do and how they see their work as an effort to increase representation in media. We talked about some ways that journalists are affected by lack of financial transparency and pay gaps while covering topics like inequality  for their newsrooms. This is the third episode in our Dispatch series from the International Journalism Festival 2022. You can read the full transcript for this interview as well as other interviews in our newsletter: https://inoldnews.substack.com/

Alan Soon and Rishad Patel have made it their mission to help out media startups in Asia. They are the co-founders of Splice, and they host courses, meet-ups and a growing community space on Slack called Planet Splice, where over 200 journalists and media professionals share ideas and opportunities. Their audio course on building a viable media business is called School of Splice. We were able to catch Alan and Rishad as they came out of their session on media entrepreneurs in Asia at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy. This is the second episode in our Dispatch series from the International Journalism Festival 2022. You can read the full transcript for this interview as well as other interviews in our newsletter: https://inoldnews.substack.com/

Kevin Douglas Grant is the co-founder and Chief Content Officer of The GroundTruth Project, a non-profit news organisation with the mission of supporting early-career journalists. To achieve its mission, The GroundTruth Project helps pay a portion of the salary and benefits of a local journalist at publications in the US, India, Nigeria and Brazil. We spoke to Kevin about his work with The GroundTruth Project, and about the importance of partnerships in a media landscape. This is the first episode in our Dispatch series from the International Journalism Festival 2022 in Perugia, Italy. You can read the full transcript for this interview as well as other interviews in our newsletter: https://inoldnews.substack.com/