Global Press Board of Directors Endorses New Operating Model, Paving the Way for Unprecedented Global Expansion

Last week, the Global Press Board of Directors endorsed a new operating model designed to dramatically expand the global footprint of training and reporting programs, while deepening the topical reporting focus for the 18-year-old nonprofit news organization.

Global Press embarked on a staff-led target operating model exercise in February 2024.  “After nearly two decades, the goal of assessing our current operating model was to rigorously assess if our traditional programs were allowing us to meet this complex global moment,” says Cristi Hegranes, Global Press founder and CEO. “In short, the answer was no. Choosing one country at a time and training small cohorts of 5 women at a time is just not adequate in this tumultuous moment. Our new operating model will allow us to accelerate progress toward our mission of creating a more informed and inclusive world. We’re excited to begin training more local women journalists in more places to cover the topics readers most need.”

The new Global Press operating model will offer topic-specific certificate programs to cohorts of 100 local women journalists at a time across regions and languages. The top 10-20% of each certificate cohort will be offered long-term reporting fellowships at Global Press to deeply investigate and cover the topics alongside other women journalists across the world. 

Global Press saw extraordinary success with its traditional model, which has trained and employed more than 300 women journalists around the world since 2006. Together, they produced more than 10,000 stories, many of which have gone on to create tangible impact in the world. Still, the board and task force recognized the opportunity to scale training programs to serve more women journalists in more places. The new model will see at least 200 reporters in as many as 50 countries trained before the end of 2024, with at least three additional certificates and verticals launched in 2025. Global Press piloted its first 100-woman cohort in early 2024 with success.

The new model will offer world-class training to hundreds more local journalists, while still providing long-term employment opportunities to many. “Global Press continues to believe that high-quality training followed by long-term, high-quality employment is critical,” says Laxmi Parthasarathy, Global Press COO. “Fellowships will include competitive pay, strong benefits, ongoing professional development and access to our industry-leading Duty of Care program.” 

Each certificate program and the resulting news coverage will include Global Press’ signature narrative change techniques and will be produced using Global Press’ rigorous multilingual editorial process. In addition to expanding its global footprint and the number of local women journalists trained, the new operating model also hones the topical reporting focus of the organization, which has covered a wide range of topics historically. 

“The new specialized themes and verticals will allow us to uniquely cover the world’s most pressing issues through the powerful lens that only local women journalists can provide,” says Terry Aguayo, managing editor of Global Press Journal, the organization's award-winning, multilingual publication. 

Each topically-focused certificate program will feed reporting fellows into an editorial vertical staffed by expert editors, fact-checkers and research teams. Verticals will produce interconnected, investigative multimedia journalism on key topics including climate, geopolitical issues, health and more. Vertical-specific audience development strategies will serve many more local coverage communities through expanded print and radio partnerships, and a new suite of editorial products will be designed for targeted global stakeholders.

Global Press will begin the transition to its new operating model in June 2024. Bold new investments in learning design, expert topical editorial teams, and expanded operational capacity are already underway. The first certificate-to-fellowship program will launch this fall.  

For more information about the Global Press operating model, contact Portia Evans, portia@globalpress.co.