Who we are
Associated Reporters Abroad (ARA) is a Berlin-based journalism organization taking a fresh approach to delivering foreign news. With dozens of seasoned reporters across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and now Japan, we work as a team to help news outlets in the US and Europe, coping with shrinking budgets and shuttered foreign bureaus, to expand their news coverage.

How we work
ARA pitches story ideas to editors and if they are interested, they assign it. Conversely, if an editor has a specific idea for a story they want, they assign it through us then work directly with our correspondent to shape the story. Our team ensures that editors receive clean, accurate copy that meets the highest standards of journalism. We can also provide audio, video and photography to complement the story. Our model works especially well because of the high level of trust we have built among ourselves as a team as well as with editors we work with.

Why collaborate with ARA
While the news wires do an admirable job, we think readers deserve more. With our network of journalists, ARA fills in where a traditional model of foreign-based, salaried correspondents no longer applies. We can provide solid coverage with seasoned reporters who know their countries more cost-effectively then sending a correspondent from the US or even the UK, and the stories often end up with more context. We are not brokers, we are a team, your bureau abroad.

More information

Frequently Asked Questions

Our news outlets

Samples of our work

Latest stories

Founding editors

Jabeen Bhatti
Jabeen has worked as a print and online journalist in the US and abroad for more than a decade. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Times, The Washington Post and Agence France-Presse. She specializes in politics, education, law and international affairs reporting, and has worked as an reporter/editor for various online outlets including Deutsche Welle and Expatica.com. Originally from the Washington, DC area, Jabeen has lived in Poland, Denmark and South Korea, and is now based in Berlin. Jabeen holds a masters from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and was a Fulbright scholar in 2006. She speaks German, with a working knowledge of French, Polish and Danish. Contact: jbhatti@ara-network.com

Harald Franzen
A native of Germany with a decade of reporting experience in the US, Harald has worked in print, television and onlinea media and as a photojournalist. Specializing in science, health, business and technology writing, his work has appeared in Scientific American, Popular Science, Life Magazine, The Associated Press, Der Spiegel, brand eins and Vanity Fair Germany. Harald's photos have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, Stern, Business Week and People. Harald holds a masters degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and speaks English, French, German, Spanish and basic Italian. Contact: hfranzen@ara-network.com

Michael Levitin
A print journalist specializing in arts & culture, environment, politics and travel writing, Michael worked in Bolivia, the Czech Republic, Puerto Rico and Spain before landing in Germany. His work has appeared in Newsweek, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Slate, The Walrus, The International Herald Tribune, US News & World Report and The Daily Telegraph. A native of northern California, Michael holds a masters degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and speaks Spanish
and German. Contact: mlevitin@ara-network.com

Thomas Marzahl
Thomas is an American print and radio journalist who has worked abroad for most of the past 15 years, in Germany, and France. His work has appeared on Deutsche Welle, AFP, the BBC and National Public Radio among others, with reports ranging from India and Japan to West Africa and across Europe. Thomas specializes in politics, business and culture reporting and speaks French and German. Contact: tmarzahl@ara-network.com

Sumi Somaskanda
Sumi has worked as a reporter, anchor, radio and television journalist and producer for various media outlets in the US and Germany. Her work has appeared on WYCC Chicago, NY1, WLIU radio, Vermont's WCAX and Capital News 9 (YNN), and she also co-produced an award-winning documentary on autism. She served as a lead news producer at Current TV before moving to Germany, where she currently contributes to Deutsche Welle TV in Berlin. Her print work has appeared in The Washington Times and Global Post. She holds a masters from Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and speaks German, Spanish and Tamil. Contact: ssomaskanda@ara-network.com

ARA reporters

Aida Alami
Aida is a Moroccan print and broadcast reporter based in Casablanca since 2009. Her work has appeared in The International Herald Tribune, CNN, Foreign Policy magazine, USA Today, Bloomberg and Global Post. Originally from Marrakech, she earned her bachelors in media studies from Hunter College in New York and her masters in journalism from Columbia University. She speaks English, French and Arabic.

Nikolia Apostolou
Nikolia is a freelance multimedia journalist, based in Athens, Greece. She has written and produced news and features for newspapers, magazines and TV shows in English and Greek including Four Corner Media, ERT3 (Greek channel), Kathimerini (Greek) and The Washington Times. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Panteion University in Athens and a master's degree in digital media from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is fluent in English and Greek.

David Bartal
David is a Stockholm-based American writer and editor who has served as correspondent for US News & World Report, The Times of London and The International Herald Tribune. He was an editor at the American culture quarterly Nordic Reach and also wrote a daily column for Dagens Industri, Sweden's business daily. His feature and news articles have appeared in the The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Saturday Review, Dutch, Sport & Street, MiLK, Zoo Magazine, Air & Space, Defense News, Advertising Age International, Future Music, Plaza Watch, Robb Report and Scanorama.

Stuart Braun
Stuart is an Australian journalist and writer based in Berlin. His work on politics, culture and history has appeared in The Spectator, Deutsche Welle, The Australian, Arena Magazine, Qantas Magazine and Hemispheres. Stuart also masquerades as a film and radio producer, and currently produces radio reports and documentaries for Deutsche Welle and ABC Radio in Australia. Stuart, who holds a PhD in history, is currently writing a non-fiction book on Berlin, which traces the allure of the city for artistic exiles over the past century.

Siobhan Dowling
Siobhan is originally from Dublin, Ireland and has served as a staff editor and journalist at Spiegel International. Her work has appeared in a number of publications including The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Times, CNBC Magazine, The Sunday Business Post and The Irish Times. Siobhan studied modern European history and languages at Trinity College Dublin and Oxford University. She specializes in political, business and culture reporting and she is fluent in German with a working knowledge of French. Contact: sdowling@ara-network.com

Stefan Ernsting
Stefan is a German reporter, author, editor and translator based in Berlin. He is the author of Der Phantast Alexander Moritz Frey oder Hitler schie�t dramatisch in die Luft (2007) detailing Hitler's years in the German army during World War I and Dean Reed - Der rote Elvis oder das kuriose Leben eines US-Rockstars in der DDR on socialism's biggest rock star - an American who died under mysterious circumstances in 1986 and who is the subject of the documentary film, The Red Elvis and an upcoming Tom Hanks production. He has also written for a number of German publications including Die Tageszeitung and and Zitty.

Dominic Hinde
Dominic is a British print journalist and doctoral researcher who splits his time between Scotland and Sweden. He has written for a number of media outlets including The Washington Times and The Derby Telegraph, as well the Swedish magazine Ergo and Swedish Book Review. He holds a degree in German and the Scandinavian languages and has lived in Britain, Germany, Sweden and Denmark.

Kristen Gillespie
Kristen is a print, radio and television reporter, who has lived for 10 years in Jordan and Syria, covering wars (Iraq, Lebanon), suicide bombings (Jordan, Saudi Arabia) as well as political and social developments across the Arab world. She has reported for NPR, CBS News, The Nation, France 24 and other outlets on issues such as the situation of women in Yemen, intermarriage in Syria, rigged elections in Egypt, puppy mills and human trafficking networks in Jordan. She speaks Arabic, Spanish, French and intermediate German and holds a masters from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Molly Hannon
Molly is a freelance writer based in Berlin who hails from Virginia. She holds a bachelors degree in political science specializing in the Middle East and a master's degree in gastronomy and communications from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy, where she leads a seminar on 20th-century food literature and its relationship to contemporary food writing. A contributor to the Newsweek's Daily Beast and NPR's Berlin blog, Molly's also writes the LesGensFaims (Hungry People) blog.

Jenny Hoff
Jenny is an American journalist who has reported on a wide range of issues including the war in Afghanistan and the conflict in Israel during her 10 years in broadcast and online journalism. As the senior political correspondent, Jenny spent five years reporting from the Texas state capital and others as well as produced and hosted a Sunday political show for the Austin NBC affiliate. She has also reported live for CNN's Larry King Live, Nancy Grace, Lou Dobbs, In the Newsroom and MSNBC. She has lived in Singapore, Italy and now Germany, where she is currently a contributing reporter to Deutsche Welle.

Nurhan Kocaoglu
Based in Berlin, Nurhan has worked in print journalism as a reporter and editor and her work has appeared in The Washington Times, The Atlantic Times and Exberliner magazine. She previously worked in international development specializing in Eurasia with various NGOs including Transparency International in Berlin. Nurhan holds a bachelors degree in business from George Washington University and a masters in Eurasian Development Studies from Humboldt University in Berlin. She is fluent in English, Turkish, German, Uzbek and is proficient in Russian. Contact:nkocaoglu@ara-network.com

Josie Le Blond
Josie is a Berlin-based print and online journalist originally from southwestern England. Her work has appeared in Deutsche Welle and Spiegel International and she contributes to the World Crunch web magazine. She specializes in political and cultural reporting with an emphasis on the former East Germany. She has a dual degree in history and German from the University of Birmingham and is fluent in German. Contact:jleblond@ara-network.com

Meritxell Mir
Meri has been reporting on international affairs, politics, energy issues and the arts from the US, Spain and Switzerland for the past 10 years. Her work has appeared in El Mundo, The Global Post, The New York Sun, Europa Press, AVUI, VJMovement.com, El Diario/La Prensa, Time Out and The Village Voice. Primarily working in print, Meri also reports for broadcast and digital media. Originally from Barcelona, Meri holds a masters from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and speaks English, Spanish and German.

Rebecca Charry Roje
Rebecca is an American print journalist, editor, college instructor and translator based in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Washington Times, The Washington Post, and The Birmingham Post-Herald. She served as online news editor for the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. She holds a masters degree in English from Georgetown University and currently teaches writing and English literature at the American College of Management and Technology, a campus of Rochester Institute of Technology in Dubrovnik.

Ruby Russell
Ruby is a British print journalist based in Berlin. She has written for US and UK publications including The Washington Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Times of London and The Global Post. Hailing from London, she has a background in the arts and in feature writing, with a particular focus on photography. She is the founder and co-editor of Teller magazine, an arts and literary publication based in London and Berlin. Contact: rrussell@ara-network.com

Melanie Sevcenko
Melanie is a Canadian writer and journalist working in print and radio in Berlin, Germany. Her work has appeared in Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera, DOX Magazine, Realscreen, ExBerliner magazine, The Local Berlin, The Global Post, The Atlantic Times and Miller-McCune as well as Berlin Stories, a weekly podcast distributed through NPR. She had also been published as a poet and short fiction writer in various literary journals. Melanie specializes in film and documentary reporting, and has a working knowledge of German. Contact: msevcenko@ara-network.com

Jennifer Steil
Jennifer is an American freelance journalist based in London and author of The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, a memoir of her tenure as editor of the Yemen Obsever newspaper in Sana'a, Yemen. Her work has appeared in Die Welt, The Washington Times, Time, Life, Readers' Digest, The New York Post, Irish National Radio, France 24 and CBS radio. Steil is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Jason Walsh
Jason is an Irish reporter based in Dublin who has served as a correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor since 2009. He has contributed to numerous publications including The Guardian, The Independent, The Irish Times, The Irish Examiner, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Business Post, The Washington Times, PressEurop, Spiked and The Dubliner. He specialises in Irish and British politics, technology and culture and has covered the conflict in Ireland, the clerical sex abuse scandal and the Irish economic collapse.

Naomi Westland
Naomi is a British journalist based in London who writes on politics, society and international relations. Her work has appeared in The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times of London and The Washington Times. Previously, Naomi worked in Bolivia on the country's English language newspaper - The Bolivian Times. This fall, she will start her masters in political journalism at London's City University.