Its flagship site, Syria Deeply, was founded by Lara Setrakian and Azeo Fables in 2012 to cover the Syrian Civil War.
[6] News Deeply is a benefit corporation based in New York City, although its reporters, editors, and other staff are located around the world.
[8][7][9][10] Setrakian has expressed her intention to continue pursuing new "Deeply" projects, and told Fast Company some potential topics include Pakistan, Congo, Myanmar, and human trafficking, all of which are important but underrepresented or poorly covered by mainstream news outlets.
[6][12] Setrakian had grown frustrated with the way a news consumer had to try to bring together small pieces of information from multiple sources, and had the idea for a more focused resource.
[6] The site took form following a meeting with crowdsourcing and citizen journalism company Ushahidi, where she expressed her wish: we could build a proper landing page for the Syria story that was modular, that had a Ushahidi map, that has a great Twitter box, that had some original content.
Organizing information has become a major challenge and an opportunity to leap ahead with innovative news design.
[12][6] Parts of the site functioned as journalism communities, providing means for reporters to collaborate and share information about developments.
[8] According to managing editor Hannah Hoag, the site was less about breaking news and "more about the connections between issues that have previously been treated on their own.
Women's Economic Advancement covered the issues that impact female populations in the developing world.