First Draft Media

We are First Draft Media

First Draft Media is an engine for innovation to publicists and journalists in hard-to-reach, heavily censored, and authoritarian environments.

• We are socially conscious
  First Draft Media believes in the power of journalism to bring dignity, dialogue and direction to the world.
• We are consciously commercial
  First Draft Media carefully avoids donor dependence. Philanthropy and donor funding have a role to play, but donor dependence hurts the sustainability and long-term viability of media.
• We are commercially sustainable
  First Draft Media does not pursue profits per sé. We are social enterprise set up to support journalists launch commercially sustainable publications.

We are press freedom advocates

The founders of First Draft Media are three press freedom advocates. To make journalism viable and sustainable again, we believe that publishers need to refocus their energy on audiences, on building products that serve communities, and on collaborating with each other.

We are building First Draft Media to empower newsrooms to re-imagine what journalism means to them and their audiences, thereby turning journalism into a viable business model.

We make journalism sustainable and impactful

First Draft Media launches new titles and publications, and supports existing newsrooms and publishers as well. First Draft Media supports journalistic platforms that often—though not always—occupy a particular niche or fulfill a specific audience need.

First Draft Media does so in order to foster a pluralistic media environment even in those places that are most hostile to a free and independent press. To these aims, First Draft Media implements a set of activities that centers the audience, puts the publisher first, and develops innovative publishing technologies and solutions.