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Articles by Liz Kelly Nelson
Election night happened in a lot of small rooms
Last Tuesday I sent you a guide to the independent journalists going live on election night. Then I spent the night flipping between a lot of those streams, and I came away with a picture of how audiences were experiencing election night in America in a very new way.
Where to watch independent journalists cover election night
Hi there, It's Election Day, and a lot of the best live coverage tonight won't come from a network at all. Dozens of independent journalists are going live, most of them free to watch, so here's where to find them. All times are ET, and I'll keep this list updated on the web version as more streams surface. There’s a lot of teaming up going on: Nate Silver’s partnering with three other Substacks. The Downballot paired up with G. Elliott Morris.
Meet the Journalism Creators Startup Lab EMEA cohort
Hi there, Last week, 20 early-stage creator journalists from across Europe, Africa and the Middle East started the second cohort of the Journalism Creators Startup Lab and I am honored to introduce them to you today. Seventy-five journalists applied from 33 countries. Choosing 20 was hard, and we didn't do it by follower count.
Help us pick the Project C 100!
Hi there, Big news! Nominations are open today for the Project C 100: Creator Journalists to Watch, 2027, and I need your help deciding who belongs on it. WHO ARE WE MISSING?
The freshman on the Capitol Hill beat
Photo credits: l-r courtesy Myles Morell, Madison Burt In the fall of 2025, Anthony Pellegrino was a high school senior from Chicago, wondering how to bolster his application to George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs. A budding hockey reporter, Pellegrino decided to launch a TikTok channel about politics. He spent months in his bedroom putting in the reps to get comfortable on camera and sharing the latest political news.
Creator Journalism Pay Rates: What to Charge Newsrooms, Sponsors, Readers and Funders
Maintained by Project C. Last verified October 2026. Creator journalists get paid by four kinds of buyers: newsrooms, sponsors, readers and funders. Each pays for something different, so there's no single going rate for creator journalism. This page collects the real, sourced numbers I could find for 2026, from Defector's $600 minimum for a shorter piece to a $75,000 journalism award, and says plainly where nobody has published a number yet. ➡New to the term?
Guy Raz now owns How I Built This
Heads up: a long piece about getting paid is coming later this week. It covers what newsrooms, sponsors, readers and funders actually pay independent journalists, with real numbers and sources. So no essay today, just the latest from around the ecosystem and the community. - Liz Guy Raz now owns How I Built This, and the show is leaving NPR for Vox Media. Vox will handle sales, marketing, distribution and live events, video episodes start on YouTube this fall, and the deal terms weren't disclosed.
You don't need a masthead to have a newsroom
Hi there, Last week I spent an hour on the phone with Tracy Wholf who, along with four collaborators, hit on a pretty novel model for indie creator journalists: pooling their reporting and their audiences around one topic, with no shared employer, no masthead and no ad budget. Tracy was laid off from CBS News last October.
What 20 early-stage creator journalists learned this summer
Hi there, This summer we ran the first Journalism Creators Startup Lab with the support of the Google News Initiative: eight weeks of instruction and coaching with 20 participants across North America plus sustained coaching and a warm welcome to the larger Project C Community.
Substack's politics lead goes indie and more from around the ecosystem
Hi there, if you’re US-based, hope you had a lovely long Labor Day weekend. If you’re reading elsewhere in the world, now you know why the newsletter is a day late and why there’s no essay this week. Scroll down for the latest from around the ecosystem, some impressive AF wins from the Project C community and some upcoming must-see programming. I'll be back with more thoughts next week. - Liz Substack's first Head of News and Politics is leaving.
What I mean when I say 'creator journalism'
Hi there, I’ve had a definition of creator journalism sitting in a slide deck since early 2024 when the little spark that grew into Project C first ignited. It was a big part of the foundational work I did during my Sulzberger Fellowship. I've put it up on screens at conferences and walked through it on panels. It's even been cited in a few research papers (with footnotes, which delights me more than it probably should 🤓 ).
APPLY NOW: Journalism Creators Startup Lab – EMEA Cohort
📸Are you following Project C on Instagram yet?📸 Earlier this summer, in partnership with Google News Initiative, Project C launched our first Journalism Creators Startup Lab – a free program for early-stage creator journalists. Our first cohort of 20 journalists were all based in North America or targeting mainly North American audiences.
What It Actually Costs an Indie Journalist to Take a Vacation
Hi there, Quick housekeeping before we get into it: the new Project C member directory is live — 50+ independent creator journalists, searchable by beat, platform and geography. If you're a member and haven't added yourself yet, add your listing here. If you're looking to connect with independent journalists working in your space, browse the directory now! - Liz My AI friends helped me take these pix from last year’s beach trip and create this psychedelic freakout of a collage.
Independent journalism had a very good Saturday in DC
If you want to feel good about the future of news, you should have been in the room this past Saturday. Project C brought together 16 Muslim American creator journalists in Washington, DC, to show off six months of work building actual, sustainable journalism businesses. Businesses that already have readers and listeners, and, after Saturday, funders paying attention, too. The 2026 Muslim Creator Journalism Accelerator cohort. Some of these journalists have been at this for years.
Teaching journalists to sell sponsorships
If you noticed the inbox was quiet last week, you're not wrong. The July 9 edition never left the dock because I was deep in redesign land. Both the Project C website and this newsletter got a MAJOR glow up. I would love any feedback on either if you have thoughts. 📧The upside: this one's a double issue ‼, with two weeks of links and community wins and some great news for the Project C Community. As part of the redesign I’m playing with AI helping level up the art situation here.
Introducing the Journalism Creators Startup Lab
I've spent the last couple of years talking to and working with journalists who are about to go independent or just did, and they pretty much all hit the same snags. There’s no issue creating the content. That is the work we were born to do. There is a freedom and swagger that comes from stepping away from a news organization and launching your own newsletter or YouTube channel and being the decider of what gets created, when and why. That swagger is necessary and can carry you a long way.
For creator journalists on different continents, a similar industry crisis
This morning, I’m welcoming two guest authors – Emily Wright and Jay Barchas-Lichtenstein from the Center for News Technology and Innovation (CNTI). Project C partnered with CNTI on a study that was released earlier this year about creator journalists working in the U.S. After we finished our work, they continued – partnering with Code for Africa to run the same study in South Africa.
SAVE THIS EMAIL: The new biz toolkit for creators!
Last year, I was invited to a very cool convening. Tracy Baim, who runs Press Forward Chicago, brought together a group of creators working in the Chicago area, along with a handful of publishers and funders. The idea was to hear more from creators about their work, the realities of how they are sustaining their businesses, and what they need. What we heard that day was that the content creation for these folks is the easy part.
The political disclosure problem creator journalists can't ignore
A quick note before we dive into today’s newsletter: One thing we’ve learned over the past two years of supporting creator journalists: At some point, what you actually need is someone who can help you think through how to level up your specific business. That’s why Project C now offers 1-on-1 coaching led by the amazing Blair Hickman.
The Most Disruptive Shift the News Industry Has Already Seen
Imagine a procedural crime drama where the star detective walks into a room that's already been processed. Evidence has been bagged, witnesses interviewed, the smoking gun found. She announces she's cracked it. The other detectives exchange an eye-roll.
Agreeing to disagree with Casey Newton on AI
A few weeks ago, I sat around a table in Perugia, Italy, with some very smart people – many of them creator journalists trying to feed their content machines and make a living every single day. The topic on deck that evening was AI: how to use it in our work, and whether we should use it at all. It won't surprise you to hear that, with a table of about 16 journalists, the thinking was all over the map.
The reporting is moving. The credit isn't.
This spring, we spent time with two independent journalists breaking the kind of accountability stories that used to be the exclusive province of big newsrooms, and watched them fight on two fronts to keep their names attached to their own work. One front is legacy journalism, where outlets can treat solo reporters as sources rather than peers, scooping stories the creators originated.
We know more about creator journalists than we ever have
I'm writing this from Perugia, where the International Journalism Festival is in full swing and the Center for News, Technology & Innovation (CNTI) just dropped the most in-depth report we've seen on the U.S. independent creator journalism landscape. Amy Mitchell, CNTI's executive director, presented the findings here yesterday on a panel with me, Justin Bank, Justin Arenstein and Dave Jorgenson.
Lotsa links from the road: Trustfnd, TBPN, Newdle & more!
So the newsletter is a day late, but hopefully not a dollar short. I've been traveling a lot this month, so the weekly Friday for the next few weeks be more links, less essay. This week, I was visiting the new Knight Center for the Future of News at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
What it costs to leave
Also this week: beehiiv launched native podcast hosting on every plan and took aim at Substack and Patreon in one move. The New Yorker profiles a Spanish-language news creator reaching millions of followers. An honest take on the ethics of paywalling your own work. And the Daily Mail hired 25 creators and is producing 20 videos a day. All that and more in the links below. ↓ But first… In February, The Washington Post cut roughly a third of its staff.
The Chicago filmmaker who couldn't sleep
Andrew Freer couldn’t sleep. The day before, his neighbor had been arrested a block from their kids' school in Oak Park, just outside Chicago. The neighbor had been doing what a lot of Chicagoans were doing in September and October of 2025: following an ICE vehicle, honking his horn and blowing a whistle to alert the neighborhood. Four agents got out of the car and drew their guns, right in front of the school, which promptly went into lockdown.
The Joanna Stern model + Friday Links (a day early!)
Programming note: We have a new website! projectc.biz got a ground-up rebuild this month and it's a HUGE upgrade. Take a peek for links to Independent Journalism Atlas, the Top 50 list, our research, community info and the brand new Lizbot 🤖 , who will answer any and all of your questions about creator-model journalism. Go poke around and let us know what you think. The Joanna Stern model Something interesting happened this week.
Meet the Project C ONA26 Creator Cohort!
Earlier this year, in partnership with The Lenfest Institute for Journalism and the Online News Association, we put out a call for independent journalists working in the creator model to apply for the second Project C Creator Cohort at ONA26. Once again, the response blew us away. This year, we focused on U.S.-based creator-journalists working at the hyperlocal level – people building direct relationships with their communities and doing the kind of original reporting that often goes uncovered.
The news you're missing in Chicago
Happy Monday. This edition is jam-packed with GOOD STUFF, starting with some recent Project C research and then rounding up a ton of updates and opportunities. Things are starting to snowball (with apologies to my friends in the Northeast who are digging out today) as the momentum around creator journalism is picking up, umm, more snow. ❄ Talking through the research in December at Medill’s 2025 Chicago Local News Summit.
The media ecosystem Chicago - Editor and Publisher
Posted Friday, February 20, 2026 10:04 am In early 2025, Project C, an organization that works to equip independent journalists with tools to succeed in the independent creator economy, introduced the News Ecosystem Framework — a visual tool that charts a comprehensive continuum of news industry models.
The Media Ecosystem Chicago
This text was adapted from our report on the Chicago Media Ecosystem. Download a full PDF version of the report. In early 2025, Project C, an organization that works to equip independent journalists with tools to succeed in the independent creator economy, introduced the News Ecosystem Framework — a visual tool that charts a comprehensive continuum of news industry models.
From 'What is this?' to 'How do we work together?'
Georgia Fort, the Minneapolis-based indie journalist who was arrested alongside Don Lemon for her work covering the Trump administration's ICE crackdown, was not only invited but warmly embraced and given a platform to explain why independent voices matter. Carlos Eduardo Espina spoke to his staggering popularity and how he has become one of the most trusted news voices serving Latino Americans – from TikTok.
Indie journalists targeted in Minnesota arrests + Friday Links
Georgia Fort livestreams just moments before her arrest. (Courtesy Facebook) It was just Tuesday – three days ago – that I wrote about the independent journalists on the ground in Minnesota covering the ongoing ICE raids and the protests that continue to gain momentum across Minneapolis.
Independent journalists covering Minnesota right now
(Image courtesy Unicorn Riot) Operation Metro Surge – what the Department of Homeland Security called "the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out" – has deployed more than 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota. Two American citizens are dead in Minneapolis. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the VA, was shot by Border Patrol agents last weekend while helping protesters who'd been pushed to the ground.
ūüö® APPLY NOW! Join the Project C Creator Cohort @ ONA26
‚¨áPLUS: scroll down for a roundup of what we‚Äôre seeing in the creator journalism space this week. Project C, in collaboration with The Lenfest Institute for Journalism and the Online News Association, is excited to bring 10 independent journalists working in the creator ecosystem to ONA26 in Chicago this March. Learn more and apply below ‚Äď but make sure to do it before the Feb. 17th deadline! In case you missed it, this is year two of our cohort program.
Inside the Rise of the Creator-Journalist Report
For the past few years, “creator journalist” has been a useful shorthand – but one that’s also produced plenty of assumptions and knowledge gaps, many of them untethered from the reality of the work. That’s made it harder to develop clear language, shared frameworks, and funding structures to support this growing space. The new Rise of the Creator-Journalist report from the Video Consortium, produced with Fordham University and Project C, starts to close that gap.
What I told the Cronkite School graduating class
Project C is on a holiday break, but last week, I was invited to be the keynote speaker at the fall convocation at ASU’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications. I’m sharing the text of that speech here because it speaks to a moment in time, an inflection point that we’re all living through in both slow motion and hyperspeed. It applies, I think, to a wider audience than just new grads. We are all able to start over at any point.
Announcing The Independent Journalism Atlas
Hey friends, If you've been reading Project C, you know I've been obsessed with a particular question: What does journalism look like when it's no longer confined to traditional institutions?
The creator infrastructure gap will define journalism’s next chapter
The creator infrastructure gap will define journalism’s next chapter “The next 18 months will determine whether creator journalism develops sustainably — with standards, fair partnerships, and editorial independence protected — or tumbles headlong into the exploitative dynamics of the broader influencer economy.” -he-creator-infrastructure-gap-will-define-journal In the last three months, I’ve had a nearly identical conversation over and over — with aggregators, with media companies, with...
Across the Atlantic, creator journalism starts to click
Clockwise from top left: On stage at Sciences Po; learning from Nederlands Dagblad; Sciences Po’s journalism students. Hey. Just a short note up top this week to say there are some great pieces below, so you should make sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom.
A Thanksgiving gift from the indie journalism world
Lex and I (top left) + 79 journalism creators who came to share, help each other and find community. It’s Thanksgiving week, so I wasn’t planning to write anything. But on Monday Project C Community co-host Lex Roman and I hosted the “Is Indie Journalism Right for Me?” virtual event and it knocked me sideways.
How research and support can build up creator-model journalism
This resource is part of the Creator Journalism Trust and Credibility Toolkit from the Knight Communities Network, Project C, and Trusting News, which helps funders identify — and fund — creator journalists in their local ecosystem. Find more information here, or reach out to and . The way people get their news has already shifted. Today, creator-journalists on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and newsletters are reaching more people than many legacy outlets can.
Legacy media wants the creator vibe. Will it work?
Are you following Project C on LinkedIn? If not, now’s the time as we kick off a series of profiles of Project C community members. This week we profiled JD Shadel, Amy Miles and their new worker-owned collective anxiety.eco – a smart needed take on the intersection of fashion and sustainability.
How creator journalists can assess – and disclose – their funding
This resource is part of the Creator Journalism Trust and Credibility Toolkit from the Knight Communities Network, Project C, and Trusting News, which helps funders identify — and fund — creator journalists in their local ecosystem. Find more information here, or reach out to and . As influencers have demonstrated a clear ability to build scaled audiences across distributed platforms, funders and causes have recognized the value of funding independent creators.
What does the big beehiiv update mean for you?
Programming note: If you, or a journalist you know was laid off (or is worried about potential layoffs), join Project C for a free Nov. 24th session: Is Indie Journalism Right for Me? Thanks to several layoff rounds at multiple news orgs this month already, we have 130+ signups 😱as of today – but we don’t want to turn anyone away who wants to join, so there’s still room.
Why philanthropy should back creator-model journalism
This resource is part of the Creator Journalism Trust and Credibility Toolkit from the Knight Communities Network, Project C, and Trusting News, which helps funders identify — and fund — creator journalists in their local ecosystem. Find more information here, or reach out to and . As foundations and civic funders continue to sustain nonprofit newsrooms and invest in the future of public media, there is a parallel opportunity to broaden that commitment: supporting creator-model journalism.
SURVEY: Help us document the creator-journalism movement!
The creator-journalism space is evolving fast. That’s why Project C is partnering with the Center for News, Technology & Innovation (CNTI) on a new global research study to better understand the current state of creator-model journalism. This year, we’ve seen more journalists leave newsrooms – by choice or by layoff – to try to build independent, creator-driven careers.
Teen Vogue’s layoffs hit hard. Here’s what we’re doing about it.
When Teen Vogue was folded into Vogue this week, more journalists lost their jobs in yet another reminder of how fragile this industry has become. And it’s only early November, which means we’re just entering peak layoff season for journalism. The Teen Vogue news hits differently for me. Maybe because it’s not just another contraction, but the loss of a space where important work was happening I don’t see in a lot of other mainstream outlets.
Proof of concept: Creator-model journalism by the numbers
Reuters’ creator typology. (Source: The Reuters Institute) Three separate studies dropped this week, and together they say what many of us in creator-model journalism have known for a while: audiences are already living in feeds, creators are already doing the work, and institutions are finally measuring what’s been true on the ground.
New trust toolkit for creator-model journalism
I’m so excited to share news from Project C about a resource we’ve been developing alongside friends at Trusting News and the Lenfest Institute for Journalism on behalf of the Knight Communities Network: The Creator Journalism Trust & Credibility Toolkit.  We developed the toolkit to meet a specific need: Helping local news ecosystem funders assess whether a creator’s work is trustworthy, high-quality and worthy of investment.
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