The evolution of Media Helping Media
Media Helping Media (MHM) was launched in 2005 as a discussion forum for journalists working in areas where editorial freedom was under threat. Now, it’s a journalism training hub with 500 free resources.
That journey, over more than 20 years, reflects the evolving nature of the media during that time with the growth in new technology and social media changing audience behaviour. Below is how MHM responded to those challenges over the years.
The early days of MHM
The first version of MHM was a simple bulletin board, also known as a members-only discussion forum.
It was open to all, but only registered members could post about their needs, and other registered members could offer help.
The name Media Helping Media seemed to sum up the purpose well.
The home page of MHM in April 2005 was a simple format setting out the purpose of the site and inviting people to join in. Membership grew to the point where the forum had to be split into categories covering media training needs, media freedom issues, attacks on the media, and requests for financial help from fledgeling media setups. Over time it became clear that there were far more posts asking for help and support than there were posts from those able to offer help.
A resource hub for journalists
The support that was needed fell into three categories. Financial support, organisational support, and training.
Because MHM has no backers – financial or political – we were unable to help with requests for money. And as a small organisation built by volunteers, were unable to offer organisational backing.
But what we could offer was our experience as journalists having worked in print, broadcast, and digital media. And that was when it became clear that free training resources should be central to what the site offered.
I discussed this with my former BBC colleague and friend, Bob Eggington. We decided that the best way to offer such support was by creating a repository of free training materials designed to preserve journalism best practice.
As a result, MHM evolved to become a place where those free training materials could be uploaded, discussed, and refined by the community. It moved from being a bulletin board to become a website.
News, training, and debate
The site continued to grow – as did its library of free training articles. Bob and I wrote many of the training articles and called on colleagues to contribute pieces based on the needs expressed in the public forum.
MHM also began covering news about media freedom and media development. This was partly because my work in assisting independent media outlets around the world connected me with many journalists whose newsrooms were under threat.
As a result, by late 2007, MHM had become a blend of three elements:
- news on media freedom
- free training resources
- a forum for discussion on independent media issues.
But it soon became apparent that with just two volunteers running the site part-time, and with both of us continuing to deliver journalism training around the world, we couldn’t keep up with the steady flow of stories about media freedom issues.
It was also difficult to ensure that all the forum posts were given the attention they deserved. At that point all our training articles were available via a wiki, and that took a lot of time and effort to manage.
Focus on free training resources
Three years later, in 2010, we decided to stop covering news. There were far better resourced newsrooms that were dealing with media freedom issues, such as Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists. There seemed no point in duplicating that effort.
We also decided to close the forum because user behaviour had changed considerably. Bulletin boards and discussion forums were being replaced by the growth of social media platforms. At the same time the quality of contributions to the forum had changed.
So we decided to focus on building up our stock of free training resources.
At that point there were about 100 articles on the wiki. They were all reworked and moved to a new site built on WordPress.
From then on we kept adding to the free resources until 2018 when the Fojo Media Institute at Linnaeus University in Sweden – a long-standing collaborator with MHM on projects across Africa, Asia, South-East Europe, and the Middle East – offered to host the site and incorporate MHM into its wider training resources.
Fojo’s mission is to strengthen free, independent, and professional journalism, so the partnership is an excellent fit.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
In 2025 we started using AI to create structures for some content on MHM in order to make it more accessible and useful. We made a rule that AI would never produce content for the site – that would always be written by colleagues in the MHM network of journalists and media managers. You can find out more about how we use AI at MHM.
By the autumn of 2026 there were almost 500 journalism training resources on the site – every piece written by a human being.
The future
MHM continues to evolve in order to adapt to changes in journalism, technology, and audience behaviour, while preserving the fundamental principles of our profession. Our aim is simple: to equip journalists with the tools they need to strengthen independent media and inform the public.