Investigative reporting allows you to dig deeper into complex issues and corruption. This guide by John Emshwiller, a veteran Wall Street Journal reporter, will maximize your chances of finding an in-depth story.
L.A. Times reporters Jason Felch and Jack Dolan found a 35-year-old law that has contributed to California’s economic crisis. The law allows companies buying business properties to avoid reassessments and the resulting tax increases if “no one acquires a majority stake in a company that owns the property.” For instance, Jason and Jack write: “In [...]
Pulitzer winners David Barstow and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab headline this session at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference: Cracking Corporate Corruption at Wal-Mart. The duo’s investigation into corruption in the world’s biggest retailer won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.
Dozens of journalists teamed up to dig deep on 2.5 million files attached to more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts. The result: a groundbreaking investigation on offshore secrecy – “Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze” – from The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The series has already gained international attention, [...]
Elizabeth McGowan, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer won a Pulitzer Prize this year for their InsideClimate News series “The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of,” which looked the impact of a diluted bitumen or “dilbit” spill in Michigan. Elizabeth says she discovered the spill while looking at energy and environmental [...]
Elizabeth McGowan, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer won a Pulitzer Prize this year for their InsideClimate News series “The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of,” which looked the impact of a diluted bitumen, or “dilbit,” spill in Michigan. I talked with Lisa, whose science background helped research the series, and [...]
Do you have an investigative project you’re hoping to pursue but lack funding to pull it off? The Fund for Investigative Journalism will award multiple grants for journalists pursing in-depth stories focused on domestic issues. Deadline to apply for consideration in the next round is June 10. Grants average $5,000 and help cover reporting expenses. [...]
Joe Ducey, Lauren Gilger and Gerard Watson of ABC 15 in Phoenix won an Edward R. Murrow award from the Radio Television Digital News Association and a Peabody Award from the University of Georgia for their investigative series on a Ford recall. What stood out to me was footage of the “smoking gun.” The reporters [...]
The Senate was expected to vote Monday on the Marketplace Fairness Act, or MFA, a bill that would require online sellers to collect state and local sales taxes just like their brick-and-mortar counterparts do. For the past decade or so, traditional merchants have opined that e-commerce sites like Amazon.com have a pricing advantage because (at [...]
Business stories – or stories with strong business angles – have won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in each of the last eight years. Business is fertile territory for investigative reporting, but all too often is overlooked by local reporters. Get the skills you need to identify and develop local investigative business stories at a free, daylong workshop in Madison, Wisc., on Saturday, Sept. 28.
