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As the Taliban rolled into Kabul in August 2021, many international news organizations ordered their correspondents to leave. Jane Ferguson decided to stay. She was a freelancer; it was her call. She broadcast her account of the chaotic American withdrawal over Skype to PBS NewsHour, and also shared her reporting on Twitter and Instagram, where she found an engaged audience. Her posted videos were viewed around the world, and featured in CNNâs coverage. That didnât earn her a dime.Â
But from the experience came the spark of an idea. Maybe there was a way to connect journalists in the field directly to their audiences, who would pay them for the content they produced. Ferguson put the notion on ice while she wrote a memoir, No Ordinary Assignment, in which she described her improbable journey from Irish farm girl to war correspondent, with stints in Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She also wrote about her mistakes and her struggles and the huge challenges of making a living as a conflict reporter, even though she won numerous awards, worked for CNN and Al Jazeera English, and eventually landed a great gig as a freelance correspondent for PBS.
After completing her book, Ferguson spent the fall of 2023 teaching at Princeton. While there she took a business class and met with entrepreneurs and technologists. The more she learned, the more she believed she was on to something. Younger audiences were forging deep connections with influencers and content creators, many of whom boasted large viewershipsâand a few, considerable income. These same audiences trusted journalists in the fieldâthey just didn’t trust the corporate entities that employed them. Meanwhile, international correspondents struggled to make ends meet. Few found staff jobs, and they sometimes risked their lives for a story that paid a few hundred dollars. âIt became apparent to me, and Iâm sure many of my colleagues, that the industry was not going to figure out a solution to the existential threat,â Ferguson told me. âIt was terminal, this move online.â
In January 2024, Ferguson incorporated her new business, which she dubbed Noosphere, referring to the idea of a unitary human consciousness. She began to raise money, and today has about a million dollars. In the fall 2024, Ferguson made her first hire, Sebastian Walker, the former Washington bureau chief for Vice News, who had spent years reporting from the Middle East. Together, they recruited leading journalists by offering to split the revenue of any subscription they brought in. After a year in development, Noosphere launches today.
Among the roster of top journalists already on the platform are renowned international reporters and Vice News veterans Hind Hassan and Matthew Cassel. Also in the mix are top reporters known for their coverage of the US, like Pablo ManrĂquez, who covers immigration, and Joyce Koh, a Washington Post veteran. Noosphere is video-first, but journalists can also post audio reports and photos on the platform. Eventually, Noosphere hopes to support a roster of around fifty journalists, covering global affairs and US politics. Introductory subscriptions are fifteen dollars a month but will rise to twenty within a few months. For every new subscription they bring in, the journalist gets half.
Journalists on Noosphere exercise full editorial control. They travel where they like, cover the stories they want to cover. They are encouraged to build ties with their audiences. When I visited Ferguson and Walker in a downtown Manhattan WeWork where they have set up shop, I asked about safety. Noosphere will operate as a platform, like Substack, Medium or YouTube. Since itâs not a publisher, it canât assume liability for what its contributors post or the actions they take to get the story. Still, Ferguson is offering a range of support, including access to protective gear, safety training, and medical insurance. She also notes that the relationship with Noosphere is not exclusive. Contributors are welcome and even encouraged to develop relationships with more traditional news outlets.
Ferguson and Walker believe that journalists on Noosphere can earn around ten thousand dollars a month, enough to live comfortably and do the work thatâs important to them. Stars on the site may earn considerably more. While YouTube influencers operate within an incentive structure that rewards outrageâthe more provocative they are, the more views they get, the more money they earnâthat wonât be the case on Noosphere. Membership on Noosphere is by invitation, open only to journalists at the top of their field.
Ultimately, Ferguson believes that Noosphere can open up the field to local reporters, giving them a chance to reach a much wider audience and earn a steady income. One of the initial reporters is Shrouq Aila, who covers Gaza, where she lives. Ailaâs work has appeared in the Washington Post and the Daily Beast, and she was honored in 2024 with the Committee to Protect Journalistsâ International Press Freedom Award.
Ferguson recalls that the local journalists she employed in places like Yemen or Afghanistan were generally the most knowledgeable and connected. âThese guys were speed-dialing government ministers and generals. They would just tweet news lines. And I was like, That’s actually a news story, what youâve just given away. Or it was incredible video content and analysis that has value.â
While local reporters earned almost nothing, international news organizations were taking on huge costs jetting around top correspondents and paying for satellite uplinks. âHow much does it cost to run a cable news network?â Ferguson asked. âIt costs a fortune. And so many of those costs donât need to exist anymore.â Like every entrepreneurial idea, Noosphere is a gamble. But if it succeeds, it could redistribute the equity in the international news business and put money in the pockets of the reporters who actually bring us the news. I wish them luck.
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