Johnny and Iz Harris are co-founders of Newpress, a creator-led media company built on a simple idea: people want to understand the world through real humans they trust. Johnny and Iz, who are the winners of the 2026 ICFJ Founders Award, delivered the following remarks on Nov. 10 at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC, at the ICFJ Awards Dinner 2026.

Iz: Thank you on behalf of Johnny, me and the entire Newpress team, many of whom are here. We are humbled to be here tonight. We share the stage with incredible journalists, whose work asks a kind of courage and bravery that few of us are ever asked to show.

We're aware of who we are here with and are deeply honored. In honoring us, we see that the ICFJ recognizes the many forms that journalism can take. We share a deep commitment to helping audiences understand the world's most important issues.

Newpress is a creator-led media company. Our mission is to reach wide audiences and to help them better understand the world through rigorous, visually compelling journalism. For our audience, our lovely audience of 15 million people, we hope to bring them the gift of understanding.

We believe that's a necessary step for them to feel like they can engage with the world around them.

The internet democratized information and with it, it democratized journalism. All of us in this room understand that that opportunity needs to be met with integrity and care. And that's exactly what the creators behind our shows are doing.

Johnny: Each one of the Newpress creators brings their own voice and vision to their shows. Audiences increasingly want to learn from people, from humans they trust. And we believe that it's the authentic, earnest curiosity of our journalists that allows our reporting to have the greatest impact.

And behind those shows and those journalists, there is a team of wildly clever, curious, beautiful people who spend months reporting and hours and hours editing and animating and fact-checking and writing and rewriting so that we can make just over a hundred videos a year.

Every piece that we put out has one clear mission which is to help people understand the world. Because we believe, as Iz said, that is important.

When you zoom out and you connect the dots, you give audiences context. That's when they come back. They watch, they engage, because they feel empowered to face the daily flood of headlines — because they now have an informed foundation to stand on. That's what we're building at Newpress.
 

Iz: Johnny and I didn't learn like everybody else. I'd actually imagine that many of us in this room were met with our own learning challenges. Maybe that's why we're all here.

We search voraciously for answers. We approach questions with an earnest curiosity and a deeprooted need to know to understand. And then when we have those answers, we need to share them with as many people who will possibly listen.

At Newpress, we're just getting started. We dream of reaching over a hundred million people with rigorous, accurate information through our creator-led shows that will touch on geopolitics, current events, health, sports, technology, economics, finance, and more.

We'll get there by building carefully and intentionally. None of this would have been possible without the people and the organizations that have shaped us.

First and foremost, we've mentioned you, but to our team, I'm obsessed with you. You are brilliant. Your fingerprints are all over this work. I say it to you hopefully often enough, but I'm saying it to you now. Thank you. Thank you for your creative, brilliant minds.

To my parents, I would be lost without you. Thank you so much for your patience, especially when I was a little girl and I was asking for the 400th time. But why? Why? Why is it that way?

Johnny: I want to thank my parents, too. They gave me a camera at 8 years old, the family camcorder, and they bought a bunch of tapes and let me just run wild and gave me that freedom to explore.
I think my creator journey really starts with them.

Iz: To our kids, your unique brains are what make me see the world with awe and wonder, and they help me fight to make it easier to understand it.

Johnny: And to YouTube, the platform, this is a place where we've been able to experiment, to explore, to express ourselves in a unique way that didn't really necessarily fit in traditional institutions. There's no way we could have built this anywhere else.

Iz: And to the ICFJ for seeing where journalism is headed and giving us room at the table to have a small part in it. And to the many journalists and newsrooms whose work makes our reporting possible.

Johnny: Truly, truly, truly. And tonight, the stories we've heard drives this home. We are indebted to your grit and the commitment to truth that you live by.

Both: Thank you. Thank you.