Registered Office: London, United Kingdom
Ownership: Independently owned by founder and publisher
Funding Model: Publicly funded in practice; sustained by readers who share our work, make donations, and maintain paid subscriptions
Operating Languages: English and Albanian.
Frontline Media Group (FMG) is a multi-title publisher focused on independent, evidence-led journalism across conflict, national security, foreign policy and human rights. The Group operates an integrated editorial, visual and education ecosystem to commission, verify and distribute high-integrity reporting and analysis.
Timeline
April 2019: VX Pictures (VXP) established
Business Unit: Editorial photo agency and education provider.
Summary: VX Pictures is a London-based, photographer-owned agency founded to prioritise distinctive editorial photography over commodity imagery.
Capabilities:
Archive exceeding one million images from conflict zones and political, social and cultural stories across the Middle East, Europe, the Western Balkans, the Caucasus and Ukraine.
Global commissioning for reportage, portrait and news assignments, including access to fixers, translators and on-the-ground producers.
Visual-journalism education (mentorships, workshops and short courses) with an emphasis on ethics, safety (HEFAT-informed practice), business literacy and narrative craft.
Status: Active vxpictures.com
March 2023: The Frontliner Magazine launched (paused)
Publication: THE FRONTLINER Magazine
Editorial Focus: The impact of conflict on international law, and on human, civil and political rights; investigations into corruption and disinformation.
Performance: Rapid subscription growth to c. 9,000+ in the first nine months.
Operational Note: Following repeated cyber-attacks and financial constraints, publication was paused in November 2024; archive access is preserved.
Status: Paused (since November 2024)
2023: Gunpowder Chronicles formalised
Publication: Gunpowder Chronicles (thegpc.uk)
Scope: Investigative reporting and analysis on global affairs, national security and foreign policy, with a current emphasis on Eastern Europe and adversarial strategies undermining democratic norms.
Method: Document-based investigations, field reporting, and scrutiny of propaganda and influence operations.
Positioning: The Group’s flagship English-language title.
Status: Active.
9 May 2023: First Albanian-language article published
Milestone: FMG commences Albanian-language publishing to serve a rapidly growing Albanian-reading audience seeking rigorous reporting and journalistic services.
July 2024: Albanian brand development and renaming
Initial Brand Concept: Rilindja (withdrawn following complaints from an existing Kosovo brand).
Interim Brand: SPOTLIGHT (deemed linguistically and culturally sub-optimal for long-term positioning).
Strategic Outcome: Proceed to final alignment with the English-language brand family (see August 2025).
August 2025: Kronikat e Barutit launched (Albanian)
Publication: Kronikat e Barutit (kronikab.uk)
Role: Albanian counterpart to Gunpowder Chronicles, aligned in mission, standards and editorial process.
Editorial Focus: Healthcare and public-interest issues; social, cultural, economic, legal and political reporting; local and central government accountability; investigations into disinformation and foreign interference affecting the Albanian-speaking public.
Status: Active.
Ongoing: The Profiler
Publication: The Profiler (theprofiler.net)
Format: Subscription-only, ad-free investigative intelligence magazine.
Deliverable: Single-subject dossiers that profile individuals and entities of material public interest.
Methodology: OSINT, HUMINT and forensic document analysis to surface hidden financial networks, geopolitical entanglements and strategic threats to democratic institutions.
Value Proposition: Intelligence-grade insight beyond daily news; directly delivered to subscribers.
Status: Active.
September 2025: The Situation Room introduced
Platform: The Situation Room (a Gunpowder Chronicles initiative of FMG)
Concept: Live, disciplined debate forum built to test arguments under evidentiary pressure.
Format:
Neutral briefing to establish a shared factual baseline.
Speakers (diplomats, academics, practitioners, journalists) bound by time discipline, rebuttal and clarity.
Audience votes before and after debate to measure persuasion in real time.
Status: Active.
Ongoing: The Pictures UK Wire Magazine
Publication: The Pictures UK (thepictures.uk)
Purpose: Visual-first wire magazine publishing compelling photo-led stories and maintaining an education-to-publishing pathway for emerging and established visual journalists.
Audience Services: Subscriptions, archive access and commissioning support.
Status: Active.
Group Editorial Model
Independence: FMG is reader-sustained and commercially independent. The Group’s operations are publicly funded in practice through audience support: article sharing, donations and paid subscriptions.
Standards: Evidence-led reporting, multi-source corroboration, secure handling of sensitive materials, and rigorous editorial oversight across English and Albanian outputs.
Safety & Ethics: Hostile environment-aware commissioning and training embedded through VX Pictures’ education programmes and protocols.
Leadership and Team
Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
- , Investigative journalist, war correspondent and foreign editor.
Editorial & Contributors
- , Political Editor.
- , Writer & Photographer, also founder of Borderlines.
- , Writer.
- , Photographer.
Extended Editorial Oversight
A network of foreign editors based in New York, Washington, Paris and London provides additional editorial review and standards compliance.
Research Capacity & Mentorship
Xhymshiti delivers mentorship programmes in reporting on armed and political conflicts.
A rotating cohort of 6–10 mentees supports research, verification and document review under editorial supervision of the FMG.
Operating Footprint
Publishing: London headquarters with international contributor network.
Visual Operations: VX Pictures archive, assignment desk and education programmes.
Events & Debate: The Situation Room live forums and briefings at the National Liberal Club.
Languages: English and Albanian, with aligned editorial frameworks.
Current Operating Status
Active: Gunpowder Chronicles; Kronikat e Barutit; The Profiler; The Situation Room; VX Pictures; The Pictures UK.
Paused: THE FRONTLINER Magazine (since November 2024; archive accessible).
Commissioning & Partnerships
FMG welcomes:
Editorial commissions (investigations, analysis and visual reporting)
Event partnerships (debates, briefings, public discussions and moderated dialogues)
Education engagements (mentorship programmes, workshops and curriculum development)
Our visual output, including editorial photography and video reportage delivered through VX Pictures, is distributed and accessible to major international news organisations and media wire networks.
These include:
The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Times and The Sunday Times, The Daily Mail Media Group (UK), Telegraph Media Group (UK), Shutterstock, Alamy, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Getty Images, Anadolu Images, Imago, Der Spiegel, Deutsche Welle, Le Monde, Al Jazeera and CNN.
In addition to editorial work, VX Pictures provides corporate and institutional photography services. Past clients include UK conference programmes on Soft Power, several London-based Western embassies, and multiple corporate and diplomatic events hosted at the ExCeL London convention centre.
A notable feature of the Group’s operating model is that most of our personnel are trained in-house. We actively recruit students and emerging practitioners in photography, photojournalism, journalism and the humanities, enrol them in our structured mentorship programmes, and select the strongest candidates for ongoing professional collaboration. This ensures a roster of contributors whose work, ethics and reliability are fully aligned with FMG’s standards when deployed on assignment.
Enquiries regarding publishing, event partnerships, education, or photography and visual assignments may be directed via the respective mastheads:
thegpc.uk | kronikab.uk | theprofiler.net | thesr.uk | vxpictures.com | thepictures.uk
Frontline Media Group remains committed to independent, meticulously verified journalism, sustained by the readers who share, fund and subscribe to our work.
