Internet access was still tethered to desktops. News was still dictated by traditional media outlets. A few digital pioneers, like The Huffington Post, were gaining traction, but social media had yet to redefine the news industry. Facebook was confined to college campuses. Google was ascendent, but YouTube—launched just the year before—was still an afterthought. Like Global Press, Twitter was born in March of 2006, too.

International news was largely limited to coverage of war, poverty, disaster and disease. In 2006, foreign correspondents covered the Iraq War, Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela, and disaster relief efforts across Asia. It was the year that Nicholas Kristof won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Darfur. 

Globally, journalism remained a male-dominated field. Women made up just one third of the U.S. journalism workforce and an even smaller fraction worldwide. Only 22% of news subjects and sources were women.

Against this backdrop of digital scarcity, limited representation, and stagnant storytelling, Global Press emerged — ready to reimagine international journalism. 

As a young journalist on her first overseas assignment, founder Cristi Hegranes quickly recognized that the most accurate, impactful journalism would not come from outsiders like her. It would come from local women journalists, with the context and access to report on their own communities.