The members of Journalism Initiative are all experienced professionals, mainly journalists but also business executives and publicity experts that joined forces in order to support journalism during this period of change in Greece and globally.
JI Board. (L to R) T. Karapanagioti, A. Massavetas, K. Oikonomakou
Tatiana Karapanagioti
President of the Board
Tatiana was born in Athens and studied at the Royal College of Art, London. She worked in London as an illustrator while in parallel being in charge of Salvo Publications of the Royal College of Art. In 2004 she returned to Greece and took up the production of TV investigative news broadcasts with reporters such as Papahellas, Theodorakis, Zacharea, Stai and Tsimas. She was member of the Greek Parliament in 2012 and Minister of Culture & Tourism during the interim government in Greece 2012. In 2016 she co-founded inside story together with Dimitris Xenakis.
Alexandros Massavetas
Board Secretary
Alexandros was born and grew up in Athens. He studied Law in Athens and Cambridge. He lived nomadically based in Istanbul from 2003 to 2015. During his stay there he wrote two books on the city (The City of the Missing – Patakis Editions, 2011 and Routes – Istos Polis Editions, 2013) and one about Asia Minor (The Palimpsist of Memory, Patakis Editions, 2015), for which he received two national book prizes, and collaborated with Greek and international media. He has since written one more book (Konstantinople – the unknown neighborhoods of the Keratius, Patakis Editions, 2017) and is continuing his nomadic existence from the basis of his birth-town.
Katerina Oikonomakou
Member of the Board
Katerina studied at the Department of Communication and Media of the Panteion University, and worked for several years at Athens News Agency (APE), before going to women’s magazines, as editor-in-chief at Harper’s Bazaar and Marie Claire. She went on to work for Tachydromos magazine, Eleftheros Typos and Eleftherotypia, where she stayed on until 2011. In 2011-2012 she was European Journalism Fellow at Freies Universitat, Berlin. In recent years, she has been working as a freelancer for various electronic media and is a member of the editorial team of the monthly book review The Books’ Journal. Her book “The Auschwitz singer – Estrogo Nahama, Thessaloniki 1918 – Berlin 2000” has been published by Kapon Editions.
Natalia Karapanagioti
Natalia obtained a PhD in Physics and worked for many years in academic research in Greece and Germany before moving to the private sector. Since 1999 she has worked in Siemens in R&D, European projects, educational projects and e-business, marketing strategy & sustainability. She is currently head of Strategy & Sustainability for Siemens in Greece.
Katerina Lomvardea
Katerina is the editor-in-chief of insidestory.gr. She worked as a journalist for Mega and “Neoi Fakelloi” investigative reporting emission for SKAI (2002-2011). She has carried out journalistic missions in many countries and believes that behind it all is a story worth saying. She holds degrees in history and European studies as well the permit of a tour guide.
Margarota Michelakou
Margarita Michelakou was born in Athens and studied German Literature. She has been working in magazines since 1990. She was in the first team of Athens Voice and, between 2006-2010, she was the director of Marie Claire. Since 2016 she has been at inside story, until 2020 as editor-in-chief and currently as newsletter editor.
Yannis Palaiologos
ΟYannis Palaiologos was born in Athens. He is a journalist at Inside Story and in Kathimerini newspaper. A graduate of the University of Oxford, where he received a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and a postgraduate degree in Philosophy. He has worked as editor-in-chief for special editions at the City Press newspaper and as a director at the Free Sunday newspaper. He was an investigative reporter, opinion editor and Brussels correspondent for Kathimerini. During the same period, he was the Brussels correspondent for SKAI TV and Radio.
His book “The Thirteenth Labor of Hercules” on the subject of the Greek crisis was published by Portobello Books (London). This was followed by the Greek edition (Estia Publications). He writes for international media such as the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, while he has contributed articles to the Financial Times, Time, Politico, Politico Europe and the New Republic. He represented Greece as a Marshall Memorial Fellow for the period 2015-2016. Outside of journalism, he collaborated with the Ab Ovo group on the script of the theatrical satire "Mama Greece2", which was performed in Athens in 2009-10.
Tassos Telloglou
Tassos was born in 1961 in Athens and studied law at the University of Athens. In 1986 he started working at the newspaper "I Proti" and in 1989 he joined the editorial staff of "Kathimerini", while at the same time he joined the politics department of Mega TV Channel. From 1990 to 1997 he was a correspondent in Germany. He has filmed and presented more than 250 long-form reports on television. In 1998, together with Alexis Papachelas and Pavlos Tsimas, he created the show "Mavro Kouti" (The Black Box) (Mega), in 2004 he became editor-in-chief of "I Fakeloi" (Folders). From 2007 to 2013 he co-presented "Neoi Fakeloi" (New Folders) with Alexis Papachelas and Sophia Papaioannou and from 2016 "Istories" with Alexis Papachelas, Sia Kossioni and Pavlos Tsimas. In 2020-21 he presented the show "Special Report" with Antonis Fourlis on Antenna TV. He has won 8 times the "Prosopa" award for his work in television, as well as the Botsi Award.
Dimitris Xenakis
Dimitris has been working since 1994 on shaping media digital strategies and on the development of applications and services for digital media. He has taken on top management roles in some of the most important news media organizations in Greece including in.gr, skai.gr and news247. In 2016 he co-founded inside story, an innovative subscription-based investigative and explanatory journalism site, with Tatiana Karapanagioti and a great team of co-workers. He holds a PhD in Physics and has worked for a number of years as a researcher.