Who We Are


NN Advisor Leymah Gbowee celebrates her 2011 Nobel Peace Prize with Liberia’s Women of Peace

New Narratives builds local news media through support for independent journalism and business model building

NN is a women-led U.S. 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization founded in 2010 that is the engine behind business innovation and investigative and explanatory journalism at the most impactful news organizations in the Global South.

NN Success:

  • NN media partners have seen an increase in audience share of up to 500%, boosting revenue, financial independence and the ability to cover stories that really matter to audiences, won international prizes and international support under fire.
  • Many NN “fellows” have stayed in journalism for more than a decade, building skills, confidence, credibility and sources they need to do journalism that has impact.
  • NN’s most high-profile fellows are women. They have changed a news industry view that dismissed “women’s issues” and made them legitimate front page news stories. Women interview more women and are high profile role models for other women.
  • Fellows have won numerous national and international awards including the Committee to Protect Journalists Press Freedom prize  the UN Dag Hammarskjold Fellowship and they have contributed to major media including the Guardian, The New York Times, PBS NewsHour, Foreign Policy, and NPR.

NN investigations have included: the first exposé of Catholic Church abuse in Africa; the exposé of a ring trafficking women to the Middle East; consistent coverage of corruption by local officials and international mining and resources companies including those from China; sexual exploitation of children by UN peacekeepers; corruption in the public education system; drug trafficking, and the continuing practice of female genital cutting after a ban. Our explanatory reporting led to a national conversation and ban of female genital cutting, and action on teenage pregnancy, child labor and trafficking, and legislative support for a war crimes trial in Liberia.

We have spread good ideas by highlighting the work of innovators, many of them women.


Supporting journalists to tell their stories

We believe journalists from low resource countries are better placed to do the reporting that will ensure world leaders have the nuanced information they need to make decisions that impact them. NN journalists contribute to international media such as The New York TimesNewsweek, Daily Beast, The GuardianReutersPBS Newshour, Foreign Policy, US public radio and the Christian Science Monitor.

Please explore the site. Read the stories. Tell us what you think. Thank you!