I work with independent media organisations, journalism funds, universities and individual journalists and media innovators worldwide.

Membership models and crowdfunding

Building communities and harnessing crowd support has been a lifeline for many journalism organisations I worked with. I raised over €1.5 million in media membership models and crowdfunding projects. I helped a documentary photographer crowdfund the entire print run of her book.

Business models

I provide consultancy to independent media. I designed and implemented campaigns to successfully re-invent the business models of legacy print media, including New Internationalist and Positive News, converting them to co-operatives owned by readers and journalists. 

Assessment

I have worked on the development and assessment of multiple journalism funds, including Doc Society’s European Documentary Journalism Fund, the European Commission-funded Incubation and Acceleration Programme STADIEM (Startup-driven Innovation in European Media), and the Future News Fund of NESTA, the UK’s innovation agency for social good.

I have been an External Assessor for 3 rounds of Google’s €150 million Digital News Innovation Fund, between 2017 and 2019, interviewing the most innovative digital news pioneers and assessing project project plans from across the European journalism landscape: from large legacy publishers to prototyping start-ups. I have also been part of Google News Initiative’s European Innovation Challenge Jury (2022). 

Strategy, coaching and mentorship

I help journalism organisations, entrepreneurs and freelancers innovate. From one-to-one sparring sessions to training days and ‘away-days’: I aim to bring not just new perspectives,  but also enthusiasm and an extensive network. For the Dutch Journalism Fund (Stimuleringsfonds Voor De Journalistiek) I work as a mentor and strategic advisor on the Innovation Bootcamp, Accelerator and the year-long Incubator programme.

Constructive journalism

In 2014, I co-founded the pioneering Constructive Journalism Project in London, with the aim to change news values across the industry to include solutions-focused reporting. As part of this, I mentor journalists and provide workshops and training courses to newsrooms across the globe.

Reporting

I lived and worked in more than 10 countries (and reported from many more), including the Netherlands, South Africa, Namibia and the UK.  Among the journalistic projects that stayed with me are the birth of the nation of South Sudan and interviewing the Dalai Lama. I have covered the work of countless changemakers across the world.

How I got here…

I started work at a local newspaper aged 17, and learned on the job whilst completing a BA at the Utrecht school of Journalism in the Netherlands. I became a reporter for national and international media and completed a Master’s degree in Journalism and Media within Globalisation (Aarhus University/ Swansea University), specialising in War & Conflict studies. My MA thesis ‘SW Radio Africa and the challenges of operating a Zimbabwean exile radio station in London’ earned me a Distinction and was published by the Journal of African Media Studies.

For the next three years, I was the Editor of INSP, a network of 120 street papers sold by homeless people, with a readership of 6 million in over 40 countries.

After a decade working as a journalist and media consultant from my base in the UK, I returned to the Netherlands in 2018. I continue to be inspired by changemakers everywhere.