Google News Initiative Newsroom Leadership Program Fellows

Gyanu Adhikari is the co-founder and editor of The Record, a media start up in Kathmandu, Nepal with a mission to become the most trusted publication in Nepal. He studied economics, but found his passion in journalism. He is into music and trail running.

Marium Chaudhry is a senior executive producer at Pakistan's leading news channel, Geo News. She is also the founder of the fastest growing digital journalism platform in Pakistan called "The Current". She graduated from The School of Media and Journalism at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has worked as a journalist in Pakistan for the past eleven years.

Danielle Cronin is the editor of Brisbane Times, a metropolitan masthead based in the capital of Queensland, Australia. She has worked in regional, metropolitan, and overseas newsrooms, including spending seven years in the Canberra Press Gallery where she reported the political coup that ended a prime ministership. She has also worked in South Africa as the inaugural winner of the Independent Newspapers Fellowship for Australia and as the winner of the German Prize for Journalism. She has also volunteered on the Women in Media Queensland committee since its inception and was recently appointed to the Women in Media Australia board, taking on responsibility for digital strategy at a state and national level. Cronin is keenly interested in pushing the boundaries of digital storytelling and innovative ways to build online communities.

Lynn D’Cruz’s policy for life is quite simply, “it’s not a job, it’s life.” Having served Malaysia’s award winning independent media, Malaysiakini for eight years, Lynn understands the significance of public support to retain the independence of media organizations. In 2014, she spearheaded Malaysiakini’s first crowd funding campaign, which contributed to financing Malaysiakini’s first self-owned premise, @Kini. She has implemented Malaysiakini’s internship program, which is aimed at helping the next generation understand the importance of independent media.

Betina Hughes is a group digital journalist with Australian Community Media (ACM). Betina works with ACM’s 140 news websites to increase their digital storytelling capabilities. Her work has involved creating a “what’s on” strategy for ACM’s subscription websites, which increased traffic to those sub sections by 2,200 percent. It is now a significant content channel for the business and regularly referenced by subscribers as a valuable section on ACM’s sites. On a local level, she has led the team at The Maitland Mercury through their transition to digital subscriptions. Her interest in developing skills in digital journalism led her to pursue a Master of Digital Media at the University of Newcastle, which she is currently studying.

Akane Imamura is a staff writer of Japan’s oldest news distribution company, the Mainichi Newspapers. Akane has been working at Mainichi for thirteen years and mainly focuses her work on business, work-style, technology, data, gender and parenting. Before starting her professional career, she spent one year as an intern at Jordan News Agency in Tokyo while she studied International Communications at the University of Tsukuba in Japan.

Ragamalika Karthikeyan is the Deputy News Editor of The News Minute, heading the news desk and managing a team of reporters and editors at the organization. As part of her work, she also writes about gender, sexuality and the law. She has been a journalist for twelve years and has previously worked with Times Now, NDTV-Hindu and Deccan Chronicle. In 2014-15, she was a Legislative Assistant to Members of Parliament (LAMP) fellow and worked on drafting The Good Samaritan (Protection from Civil and Criminal Liabilities) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill. She also worked as the program officer for the Gender Violence Research and Information Taskforce at Prajnya, a nonprofit based in Chennai.

Hyuntaek Lee is a reporter at Chosun ilbo, Korea. He worked at the Digital News Division and jobsN. Now he is working at the World News desk in the Chosun ilbo newsroom. Before joining Chosun ilbo, he began his career at JoongAng ilbo. He earned the Korean Online Journalism Award from the Korea Online Editor’s Association. He wrote several books for would-be journalists in Korea

Anisa Menur Maulani is an Editor at Singapore-based online resource portal for Southeast Asian tech startups e27. Joining the company in 2015 as a Junior Writer, she covered the Indonesian startup ecosystem from Jakarta for a year before being promoted to Senior Writer. In addition to writing and developing content for the online platform, she is also managing a team of remote workers that are spread across three countries. She started out as an intern at the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Jakarta, followed by a stint in communications at Burson-Marsteller Indonesia and Handoko Advertising. Anisa graduated from the Chinese Study Program at Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia.

Phillip O’Sullivan is Editor of Newsgathering at TVNZ’s 1 News. He oversees all TVNZ’s news reporters across New Zealand including its political team and overseas correspondents in Sydney, London and New York. O’Sullivan is a former TVNZ news reporter and worked for CNN for 15 years in Hong Kong and the Middle East. He lives in Auckland with his wife and three boys.

Nitya Thirumalai is an Assistant News Editor at News18.com. She is a millennial going from green to grey at a hectic pace. At 30, she is a ‘deskie-in-chief’ who leads a team of young journalists during exciting yet challenging times for a digital newsroom in India. Three words that sum up her plan for the future – Hear Me Roar.

Yusuf Wijanarko is a digital news editor and content crafter at Pikiran Rakyat, one of the oldest news media in Indonesia. He handles various jobs such as content planning, fact-checking, microtargeting, and marketing on a daily basis. Even though he works in news media, Yusuf has no formal background in journalism. He has a degree in cultural studies. It was his enthusiasm and desire to learn that brought him to this point in the digital ecosystem.