The Frontier story
Since launching in 2015, Frontier Myanmar has provided its readers balanced, in-depth reporting and insights from the ground to help them make sense of what’s happening in Myanmar.
With a focus on long-form and investigative articles, insights and analysis, we’ve built up a reputation for quality journalism in a difficult operating environment.
Myanmar’s political crisis following the February 2021 military coup means our reporting has become more important than ever.
Despite repeated efforts to crush independent journalism, we continue to deliver in-depth reports from all corners of Myanmar, making space for overlooked voices and issues, and reporting the uncensored truth.
The military regime’s brutal repression of dissent, the opposition’s shift to armed struggle, rising poverty and economic stagnation, the failure of the international response – we are striving to cover all of the important stories in post-coup Myanmar. In such a polarised political environment, though, we believe our commitment to impartiality sets us apart from other news sources.
Frontier has been honoured every year since 2017 by the Society of Publishers in Asia, which presents the region’s most prestigious media awards, and was joint winner of the Newsroom in Exile prize in the 2024 Human Rights Press Awards.
To learn more from founder Sonny Swe about why he started Frontier, check out this Q&A. Also read about who’s leading the newsroom here.
Memberships
In January 2020, we embarked on a big change in how we generate revenue from our journalism and how we collaborate with our readers.
We launched something that had never been done before in Myanmar’s media industry: a membership programme. We asked readers and supporters – people like you – to invest in our journalism by becoming members.
And, in what we think was another first for Myanmar, we designed our membership package together with our readers, getting feedback at every step along the way.
Running a newsroom isn’t cheap, particularly when you try to cover all corners of the country.
We had initially sought to pay for our reporting through commercial revenue, but the changing times meant the ad-based revenue model was no longer viable.
The success of our membership programme depends on the input and support of our readers. You can learn about how the project started here. It’s worth a read if you want to learn about why we’re doing it and where we hope it will lead.
For less than $2.50 a week, you can play your part in keeping Myanmar’s independent media alive.
As a member, you’ll not only be supporting high-quality reporting on issues of importance to Myanmar’s future, you’ll also have access to a range of products – from newsletters and briefings to events and behind the scenes content – that will help you better understand what’s going on in Myanmar today.
We hope that our experiment with memberships will benefit not just Frontier but other media organisations in Myanmar, by creating a path they too can follow to financial sustainability.
Frequently asked questions
You can read frequently asked questions about our membership programme here.
If your question isn’t answered in our FAQs, send us an email at [email protected].
Ownership and funding
Frontier is published by Boomerang Media Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-registered company.
Our reporting is funded through a range of sources. Initially Frontier adopted an ad-based revenue model, but declining advertising revenues in the media industry prompted us to soon begin exploring alternative sources.
We have since shifted to a membership model, in which users fund the majority of our operating expenses. Our ambition is to fund all of our journalism through reader revenue, but in the meantime we also receive support from a number of donors.
In June 2017 we received a grant from the Embassy of the Netherlands in Myanmar to produce a human rights-themed podcast, Doh Athan, in partnership with a Swiss NGO, Fondation Hirondelle.
Two additional grants, from Google News Initiative and International Media Support, supported the development of our membership programme. We have also received support from the International Centre for Journalists and Luminate.
Contacts
Letters to the editor, op-eds and freelance submissions
Please send all submissions to [email protected]
Online,
in person,
in your inbox.
Become a Frontier Member
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Join the community
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