The headlines from last month's meeting of investigative reporting profits focused on one thing – their formation of a network to support investigative reporting and provide a showcase for the groups' work. The new organization, for now called the Investigative News Network, could be a big deal, and the 10 members of its steering committee went right to work getting it up and running. But another big theme rumbled through the meeting outside New York City at the Rockefeller estate, and that was the nonprofits' mad dash for new revenue models. "My personal passion is sustainability," said MinnPost CEO Joel……Continue Reading Nonprofits see a revenue model: universities
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Andreesen invests in Talking Points Memo
Josh Marshall's successful Talking Points Memo enterprise has resisted outside investment — until now. Tech Crunch reports investor Marc Andreesen has put in $500,000 to $1 million of his own money into TPM Media, founded by Marshall in 2000. You can read this story on Tech Crunch's website here…….Continue Reading Andreesen invests in Talking Points Memo
She Was Never About Those Huddled Masses
The Washington Post ran a widely carried op-ed by Faculty Fellow Roberto Suro about the Statue of Liberty. Suro suggested that the Emma Lazarus poem on the statue – which includes the line "Give me your tired, your poor" – be removed. "We live in a different era of immigration, and the schmaltzy sonnet offers a dangerously distorted picture of the relationship between newcomers and their new land," Suro wrote. Suro also participated in an online forum by The Washington Post…….Continue Reading She Was Never About Those Huddled Masses
Political rumors getting harder to dispel
Contra Costa Times quoted Faculty Fellow Thomas Hollihan about the circulation of false political rumors online. "What happens is these are sent to people of like-minded beliefs and are often given more credibility than they deserve," Hollihan said. Part of the problem is poor levels of information literacy, he added…….Continue Reading Political rumors getting harder to dispel
CCLP Report Details Growing Philanthropic Support for Journalism
Philanthropic foundations are taking unprecedented steps to address the crisis in journalism and "serve as a firewall against the disappearance of critical news and information," according to a new report from the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy (CCLP) at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. The report, Philanthropic Foundations: Growing Funders of the News is authored by David Westphal, a CCLP senior fellow and former Washington editor for McClatchy Newspapers…….Continue Reading CCLP Report Details Growing Philanthropic Support for Journalism
New investigative group’s twin missions: journalism and sustainability
How hot is the world of nonprofit investigative reporting these days? Hot enough to make Jon Sawyer, who runs an international reporting shop, full of envy at this week's gathering on investigative reporting outside New York City. "We'd like to see the same energy in international reporting that we see on the investigative side," said Sawyer, director of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. As was true at the recent Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) conference, this week's meeting of investigative reporting nonprofits generated an unmistakable energy field. Which is an amazing thing, given how desperate the plight of investigative……Continue Reading New investigative group’s twin missions: journalism and sustainability
Nonprofits launch Investigative News Network
A group of investigative reporting nonprofits has endorsed formation of a new umbrella organization aimed at sustaining the burgeoning investigative nonprofit movement and bringing new prominence to its journalism. A resolution, "Pocantico Declaration: Creating a Nonprofit Investigative News Network," was approved Wednesday by a diverse group of nonprofit leaders – established organizations like the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Investigative Reporting, as well as newcomers like Texas Watchdog and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting. The group's mission will be to "aid and abet, in every conceivable way, individually and collectively, the work and public reach……Continue Reading Nonprofits launch Investigative News Network
Investigative network likely to emerge today
Before they head for home Wednesday, about three dozen participants at an investigative reporting summit in New York are likely to launch planning for new organization uniting the growing number of nonprofits producing investigative journalism. The new network, dubbed for now the "Investigative News Network," would be another significant step in the rise of nonprofit investigative journalism in recent years. Chuck Lewis, the godfather of so much in investigative journalism, called the initiative "truly historic." At a conference outside Tarrytown, N.Y., Lewis laid out a possible scenario Tuesday for how the network might take shape. Secure a planning grant that……Continue Reading Investigative network likely to emerge today
What is the investigative reporting summit about?
What exactly is the gathering of investigative reporting nonprofits, now under way in Tarrytown, N.Y., trying to achieve? Ostensibly, it's creation of an Investigative News Network — a coming together of the growing universe of investigative reporting nonprofits. As Bill Buzenberg, director of the Center for Public Integrity, said at dinner last night, "Imagine what a 50-state network (of investigative nonprofits) might achieve?" But as the conference swings into gear this morning, it's clear there are many different ideas of what the mission or missions of such a network might be. In Monday's opener — a fascinating round of introductions……Continue Reading What is the investigative reporting summit about?
The United States of Optimism: Americans have always seen a remarkably sunny future for themselves and their country
The late 1830s and early '40s were a bad time in Missouri and most everyplace else in the U.S. People were broke and in debt after a boom in land speculation along the routes of new canals and railroads. In the bust that followed–what became known as the Panic of 1837–banks failed or cut off credit. One Missourian, a 36-year-old storekeeper and self-educated lawyer with a sick wife (a malaria epidemic had swept the Midwest) announced on a day in 1843 that he wanted to start over in the Oregon Territory: "I am done with this country," he said. "Winters……Continue Reading The United States of Optimism: Americans have always seen a remarkably sunny future for themselves and their country