Journalism++ (J++)

Stockholm, Sweden · Porto, Portugal · International network · Founded Paris, 2011

Overview

Journalism++ — universally abbreviated as J++ in the programming convention of incrementing a variable, signaling both a technical literacy and a commitment to advancing journalism beyond its current state — is an international data journalism network and service organization founded in Paris in 2011 by Nicolas Kayser-Bril, Anne Lise Bouyer, and Pierre Romera. All three were alumni of OWNI, the Paris-based digital news platform that had been among the earliest and most significant European practitioners of data-driven journalism before its closure in 2012. The three founders took the methodology OWNI had developed — using data analysis, visualization, and computational techniques as integral to the journalistic process rather than supplementary to it — and built J++ as a vehicle for spreading those practices through a combination of client services, collaborative investigations, and journalism training.

At its peak as a multi-chapter network, J++ operated affiliated companies in Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Porto, Amsterdam, and Cologne — each an independent entity sharing the J++ brand under a joint agreement, serving local newsroom markets while maintaining the collective's shared methodology and manifesto. The current organization, operating primarily from Stockholm and Porto, is leaner than the network's peak but continues as an active international team offering data journalism research, analysis, storytelling, programming, and design to media organizations and other clients. The "Coding for Journalists" training course — described on the J++ website as "by far most popular" — is returning in November 2026, and the organization maintains an active GitHub presence with open-source tools and projects.

Founding: OWNI and the Data Journalism Moment

The founding context of J++ is inseparable from OWNI — the French digital news site that operated from 2009 to 2012 and was, alongside The Guardian's data journalism unit and a small number of American newsrooms, one of the principal early practitioners of data journalism in the pre-Snowden era. OWNI combined investigative reporting with data analysis, interactive visualization, and the kind of computational investigation of publicly available datasets that has since become standard practice in major newsrooms but was genuinely pioneering in the 2009–2012 period. When OWNI closed in 2012, J++ was already operating as a vehicle for its founders to continue that work in a more sustainable organizational form.

The name encodes the founding aspiration. In C, C++, and related programming languages, j++ is the post-increment operator — it takes the current value of j and adds one. Journalism++ takes journalism and increments it: adds the computational, the quantitative, the visual, the interactive. The name was chosen by founders who were themselves comfortable reading and writing code, for an audience of journalists they wanted to bring to the same comfort level. The J++ Manifesto — published at the network's founding and still governing its operations — commits the team to being "journalists, developers, designers and project managers who share a common passion for news, technology, and design" who "let both data and people define our stories" and treat "ethics as a first-class concern."

The Migrants' Files (2013–2016)

The Migrants' Files is J++'s most significant original investigative project — a multi-year, multi-organization data journalism collaboration that attempted to systematically document every death of a person trying to reach or stay in Europe since 2000, along with the costs associated with what became known as Fortress Europe: the combination of border enforcement infrastructure, maritime interdiction, detention, and deportation that Europe deployed to limit irregular migration. The project ran from 2013 to 2016, bringing together 25 journalists from across Europe and publishing through Süddeutsche Zeitung, Libération, Český rozhlas (Czech Radio), and other partner outlets in 2014 and 2015.

The investigation's central methodological challenge was that no single authoritative record of migrant deaths at European borders existed — deaths at sea, in desert crossings, in detention, and during deportation were recorded inconsistently or not at all by the various national and European authorities involved. The Migrants' Files team constructed a database by systematically aggregating and cross-referencing reports from border authorities, NGOs, journalists, and local sources across the full geographic scope of European border zones — the Mediterranean, the Aegean, the land borders of Eastern Europe, the Atlantic approaches to the Canary Islands. The resulting dataset, which documented more than 30,000 deaths over 15 years, became the empirical basis for reporting that forced European policy debates to confront a human cost that had previously been rendered statistically invisible. The data was subsequently incorporated into the Missing Migrants Project database maintained by the International Organization for Migration. The Migrants' Files won the Global Editors Network Data Journalism Award in 2014 and the European Press Prize in 2015.

Services and Training

J++ operates as both a service organization for media and institutional clients and a training resource for individual journalists and newsrooms seeking to build data journalism capabilities. Its service offering integrates research, data analysis, data-driven storytelling, newsroom programming, and full-stack design — reflecting the team's composition of specialists across those disciplines working as an integrated unit rather than as siloed technologists and journalists.

Data Analysis and Research

Quantitative investigation of datasets for journalistic purposes — from public records and government data to scraped web data and proprietary datasets. Statistical analysis, pattern identification, and the interrogation of data with the same critical skepticism applied to human sources.

Data-Driven Storytelling

Translation of data analysis into publishable journalism — interactive articles, data-led narratives, explainers, and investigations that make quantitative findings accessible and compelling to non-specialist audiences.

Newsroom Programming

Custom software development for journalistic purposes — tools for data collection, analysis pipelines, interactive features, and publishing integrations designed specifically for newsroom workflows and editorial needs.

Full-Stack Design

Visual and interactive design for data journalism — from data visualization and charting to full interactive web features, with design that serves comprehension rather than decoration.

Coding for Journalists (Training)

J++'s flagship training course — described as by far their most popular offering — returning in November 2026. Teaches journalists the programming skills required for data acquisition, analysis, and presentation, closing the gap between editorial needs and technical capability in newsrooms.

Building Data Journalism Teams

Consultancy for news organizations seeking to build internal data journalism capacity — advising on hiring, workflow design, tools selection, and the organizational structures that sustain data journalism practice within newsrooms of different sizes and resources.

The Manifesto and Open-Source Commitment

J++ publishes a governing manifesto at jplusplus.org/en/manifesto that articulates its principles for ethical and effective data journalism. The manifesto's commitments are specific rather than aspirational: "We let both data and people define our stories. We do interviews with both data and people, and we know how to ask critical questions to both." The balance between quantitative and human evidence — treating datasets as sources that require critical interrogation, not as objective ground truth — reflects both the founders' journalistic training and their awareness of the many ways data can mislead when not interrogated with appropriate skepticism. The commitment to ethics as "a first-class concern" addresses a genuine tension in data journalism: the availability of personal data, behavioral tracking data, and aggregated datasets creates the technical possibility of journalism that would be impermissible under conventional journalistic standards. J++'s manifesto explicitly commits the team to working through those ethical questions as a primary rather than secondary consideration.

J++'s technical work is documented on GitHub at github.com/jplusplus, where the organization has published open-source tools, project code, and data from its investigations — including the Migrants' Files dataset — for use by other journalists and researchers.

Access and Engagement

J++'s services are available to media organizations, NGOs, and other institutions through direct engagement at jplusplus.org/en. The "Coding for Journalists" training course returns in November 2026 — registration information is available through the website. The J++ Manifesto is published at jplusplus.org/en/manifesto. Open-source tools and project code are at github.com/jplusplus. The Stockholm office address is Drottninggatan 104, Stockholm 11160, Sweden. The Porto office address is Rua Elisio de Melo 28 sala 32, Porto 4000, Portugal.