PressHub.ro – an innovative and independent press network created by Freedom House Romania – is a platform for free expression of journalists from the central and local press who choose to put themselves at public service, promoting excellence in journalism.
PressHUB
The financial and moral crises have profoundly affected the Romanian media. People with serious criminal issues have taken over and turned respectable publications into personal weapons or even blackmail tools, directly turning them against the interests of society. In many counties, local publications have reached the hands of barons who distribute public resources towards propaganda articles.
This press hub aims to restore the dignity of the profession by promoting excellence in journalism. Realized by Freedom House Romania, PressHub is a platform for free expression of journalists who choose to put themselves at public service. At the same time, PressHub aims to become a resource center for journalists, a tool to contribute to the professionalization of the journalism community.
Concretely, we do this through projects such as „Heavy” Industries – professional journalists – in which we specialize journalists and write about the problems of industries that generate a lot of negative news, such as alcohol, in the Empty half of the glass campaign – but also by constantly monitoring the state of Romanian justice on the dedicated platform JustitieCurata.ro.
We do this by publicly recognizing and awarding quality journalism within the Young Journalist of the Year contest, now in its 20th edition, or by addressing topics of vital importance to the Romanian society, but neglected by the mainstream press, such as the situation of heritage buildings in The forgotten city. Bring monuments to life! campaign or the way European Money is spent in Romania.
30 local and national independent publications are currently part of the PressHub network:
- Alba24.ro
- Arad24.net
- Argeșul Online
- Átlátszó Erdély
- Banatul Azi
- Cluj Today
- Crișana
- eBihoreanul
- Epoch Times Romania
- Express de Banat
- Gazeta de Dimineață
- Gazeta de Sud
- inRoman.ro
- Info Sud-Est
- Jurnalul de Argeș
- Jurnalul Văii Jiului
- Liber în Teleorman
- Monitorul de Cluj
- Monitorul de Botoșani
- Puterea a cincea
- Resita.ro
- Revista 22
- Transilvania Reporter
- VâlceaInfo
- Viața Liberă
- Vrancea24
- Ziarul de Iași
- Zi de Zi
PressHUB Market
PressHUB Market is the first virtual media store in Eastern Europe. PressHUB market is a self-financing platform of PressHUB, the innovative and independent press network, able to increase the impact of locally generated news and press campaigns on a national level.
„On the online shelves of pressHUB market you will find: banners, advertorials, editorial projects. PressHUB market is addressed to both small and medium-sized customers and to large companies, that want to support large-scale press campaigns with messages of public interest. Another source of funding is the national and international grant programs in which we have already carried out campaigns such as European Money or the Forgotten City.” –
Cristina Guseth, director of Freedom House Romania.
At the moment of its launch, PressHUB market is the virtual store for 30 independent publications from 18 counties. Although the publications have a local audience, the PressHUB group selects the most important news and disseminates it on a national level. Four large publishing projects had already been carried out within the network by October 2019. The pressHUB team has understood that the power of the network increases through independent funding.
„I got this idea while sitting in traffic, on the way to a mall. I realized what the major problem of local publications is. Editorial freedom cannot exist without financial freedom. We have colleagues, such as Carmen Dumitrescu, from Liber in Teleorman or Sebastian Oancea from Vrancea 24, who found out overnight that their advertising funding had been cut because of a political order. PressHub market is an economic lever needed by independent publications in the pressHUB network„, – Gabriel Baciu, co-founder of the independent publication InRoman.ro, which covers local news in Neamț County.
The pressHUB market project is realized in partnership with Tree Works, a company specialized in creating online presence and complex web solutions, counting over 200 projects realized for Romanian and foreign clients. The project was funded by The Digital News Innovation Fund, part of the Google News Initiative.
Through its 27 member publications, PressHUB market covers independent news and press campaigns from all parts of the country. The network is constantly growing.