So much is on the line in the U.S. presidential election, including the future of international philanthropic giving — and the international news it funds.
Politics aside, a second Donald Trump victory would undoubtedly ensure that more donated dollars from individuals and foundations will go to domestic causes, rather than abroad. Conventional wisdom suggests that elections heighten overall donor engagement, but that’s not true for international causes.
At Global Press, the international news organization that I founded in 2006, U.S. presidential cycles are nothing new. This will be our fifth. Unfortunately, we know from experience that there is always a downturn in international giving during election season, and the future of that giving will depend largely on who ends up in the White House.
Of course, the current investment trend in local news in the U.S. is necessary and deeply important. But this is also a critical moment for international news, which receives just a fraction of journalism philanthropy. We need credible, locally-driven reporting from the world’s most challenging places — reporting that connects not only U.S. policy with the rest of the world, but also reveals simmering, often unnoticed global trends. This need is more acute than ever, many governments shift toward authoritarianism and press freedom is under increasing threat.
That’s why we’ve spent the last seven months expanding our operating model. For nearly two decades, we’ve trained and employed women journalists to cover their own communities. While this community-focused model yielded powerful, long-term reporting of some of the world’s most complex locations, it often left our work on the fringes of news cycles.
Members of indigenous communities and their supporters protest the Jujuy constitutional reform in front of the Supreme Court of Argentina in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Aug. 9, 2023. (Lucila Pellettieri/Global Press Journal)
Now, like the world around us, we’re changing. We’re going to focus our coverage and training programs on three of the most pressing issues of our time — civil liberties, global health and environment. Our journalists will still report from the places where they’re from, but their work will emphasize the increasing interconnectedness of our world.
We’ve created new career pathways for local women journalists too. In October, we’ll begin recruiting for a new, two-year topical reporting fellowship focused on shifting democracies. This fellowship will invite women from countries including Ukraine, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, and Brazil to work together to tell interconnected stories about the rise of authoritarianism. More topical reporting fellowships in the global health and environment verticals will follow, supplemented by our reporter-in-residence roles and a growing reporting network of women who complete our new certificate programs while working in other newsrooms.
We’ve redefined what makes a Global Press story. We’ll move toward investigative and explanatory journalism, while ensuring that our stories continue to be distinguished by hyper-local sourcing, accuracy and the revelatory nature of the coverage. This blend of global context and nuanced local analysis will ensure that we engage our target audiences, the local and international educators, policy makers and movement builders who need our stories most.
But change is hard — especially when we’re facing the possibility of significant cuts from our philanthropic base after the election. Giving has already been slow this year. At Global Press, we’ve laid off four full-time staff members and had to downsize the number of contract editors and reporters we work with. And we’re not alone. In 2023, there were 8,000 job cuts in the journalism industry, including from within the nonprofit news space. In 2024, big cuts have continued at National Geographic, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The LA Times and many others. Across the world, newsrooms are struggling too. Our new operating model blends earned and philanthropic revenue streams, so we’re hopeful that layoffs aren’t a consistent threat for us in the future. Meanwhile, our news will remain free for the dozens of local and international news organizations that rely on it.
Philanthropic giving priorities may shift with either a Harris or a Trump administration. And while the chaos happening in the U.S. continues to dominate the news cycle, we have to remember that the U.S. doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The opportunity to better understand the world and our place in it is something we need talented local journalists, from a wide range of countries, to do.
Despite the uncertainty of where dollars will flow next, Global Press isn’t simply hoping to be shielded from budget hits. We know that in today’s news market, if you aren’t innovating, you’re dying. The opportunity to boost both efficiency and reader engagement was a welcome challenge. We know we’re making the bold changes necessary to give people the information they need to navigate our changing world.
