In a Reuters' special report, Carr explained the difference between shell and shelf companies.

The free investigative webinar, “Shell Companies and Fraud: An Investigative Primer,” was first offered on May 21, 2013.

Unraveling financial schemes often involves tracing a myriad of corporations incorporated across the country and sometimes around the world.

Corporate entities called shells – companies with no significant assets or operations – and the people involved with them are often at the center of plots ranging from bogus investment firms to money-laundering endeavors to pump-and-dump stock scams.

The self-guided training from this webinar will help you understand the characteristics of shell companies, their legitimate and illegitimate purposes in the business sector, and methods for backgrounding and connecting intricate webs of firms and individuals scattered around the globe.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• The basics: what shell companies are, why they exist and the legitimate and illegitimate uses for these entities.
• How shell companies play a role in global corruption and how to begin track those schemes locally.
• Tactics for backgrounding shell companies through state incorporation documents, other public records and various online tools.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Kelly Carr joined the Reynolds Center in 2007 after working as a journalist for multiple publications, including The Arizona Republic. She is the center’s senior online producer. As a freelance investigative reporter for Reuters, she won the a 2012 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for a series detailing the use of U.S. shell and shelf companies.

The series also won the National Press Club Award for Consumer Journalism (Periodicals), the New York Press Club Business Reporting Award and the 2011 Foreign Press Association Media Award for Financial/Economic Reporting.

Carr was an adjunct journalism professor at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School, a fellow at The Poynter Institute and a contributing writer for Cancer Stories: Lessons in Love, Loss & Hope.

SELF-GUIDED LESSON

Review the session materials below to discover new local business angles and investigative techniques.

At least that’s what it seems like these days.  New industries are sprouting up to help companies in their pursuit of “big data.”

Reynolds Center presenters helped remind business journalists that data can work for them as well as they helped kick off the 50th anniversary of the annual Society of Business Editors and Writers conference in Washington D.C. last month.

A pre-conventinon session called “Breaking Local Stories with Economic Data” was designed to help local reporters identify and dig into useful data that can lead to good stories.

Speakers Jeannine Aversa and Thomas Dail, both public affairs specialists at the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), and Paul Overberg, database editor at USA TODAY, showed attendees how to use both databases and search tools to quickly find relevant data when researching local economic stories. | Self-guided training from a similar session held in Kentucky: Breaking local stories with economic data.

The self-guided training includes Overberg’s step-by-step PowerPoint demonstrations as well as video tutorials shown by all of the presenters. Tips and suggestions for using economic were very detailed.

The session included using stories from newspapers including the Houston Chronicle, USA TODAY and Durango Herald to demonstrate how local reporters dug past numbers and press releases to attain unique story angles relating to the community at large.

Some useful tips included ways to narrow your search: Bypass typing a topic into the search bar in favor of filtering data by year and industry, and using the BEA site to find the gross domestic product per capita in a particular metro area.

On the final day of the SABEW conference, the Reynolds Center and former business journalist and current professor Rosland Gammon helped lead a panel to discuss some best tips and practices for finding great sources.

Gammon read some quotes from her interviews with several hundred journalists on the topic of discovering great sources. Two Best in Business award winners, Michael W. Hudson of The Center for Public Integrity and Alison Young of USA TODAY, also shared their insights on how to uncover potential sources.

Rosland Gammon introduces panel speakers Michael W. Hudson and Alison Young during the "Great Sources, Great Storytelling" session at the 2013 SABEW annual conference.

Record sifting through public utility findings, logging onto Tobaccodocuments.org, and having a positive attitude when researching were some of the tips suggested at the panel.

Hudson, a Best in Business Winner for his “Fraud and folly: The untold story of General Electric’s subprime debacle”, encouraged reportersto speak to middle and lower-level employees at a company. “It’s important to find and cultivate low-level folk [...] it’s going to arm youwith more information when you go talk to the CEO,” Hudson said.

He also recommended going to an agency and showing up, saying there are always people in agencies who want to do a good job and do a good thing by helping journalists to find the documents they need to accomplish a story.

Young, whose story “Ghost Factories” also won a Best in Business award, emphasized the importance of outlining and concise writing.“Doing watchdog reporting in 400 words taught me to be a much better reporter,” Young said.

If a reporting team includes work with multimedia, Young said to keep copies of digital photos and videos in a personal file system in case the original file is misplaced.

Practical organizing and research tools such as DocumentCloud and Evernote were also suggested.

For more information on using economic data to report on local stories and for links to both the PowerPoint and videos for the presentation, visit these tips from the Reynolds Center.

Jacquelinne Mejia was one of two winners of the 2013 Reynolds Center SABEW fellowships. She is currently a multimedia producer for EC Hispanic Media in Los Angeles.

The Particulars

When:
Aug. 24, 2013
9 a.m. – noon

Where:
Anaheim Marriott
700 West Convention Way
Anaheim, Calif. 92802

Instructor:
Mark S. Luckie,
Twitter’s creative content manager
for journalism and the media

Host:
This morning workshop
takes place before
Excellence in Journalism
2013 Convention.

Hotel:
Anaheim Marriott
700 West Convention Way
Anaheim, Calif. 92802

Discounts are available
through the
Excellence in Journalism
Conference.

Registration is $25 for this
half-day workshop before
the Excellence in Journalism
Conference.

Registration for the rest of the
EIJ Conference is not required.

Photo by flickr user Victor1558

Whether you’re working in a mainstream news organization or striking out on your own with a blog, news site or freelance business, we’re all media entrepreneurs these days.

In this workshop before the Excellence in Journalism (EIJ) 2013 Conference in Anaheim, Calif., learn how to brand and market yourself and to pitch your ideas, plus understand the basics of financial and time management. And leave with five things to do when you get home to advance your career as an entrepreneur.

Mark S. Luckie, Twitter’s creative content manager for journalism and the media, shows you the ropes. He started the 10,000 Words blog and sold it to Mediabistro. He’s also the author of The Digital Journalist’s Handbook.

PLEASE NOTE: Attendees must sign up for this pre-conference workshop and pay $25. Registration for the rest of the EIJ Conference is not required.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

How to:

• Turn your idea into a business
• Brand yourself and project your worth
• Pitch your idea
• Build a community of followers
• Find funding
• Manage your time and finances

IS THIS HALF-DAY WORKSHOP FOR YOU?

This workshop is designed for both those thinking about setting up their own media business, as well as those within mainstream media organizations who want to approach their jobs with an entrepreneurial bent. Even if you’re not setting up your own business immediately, you’ll learn how to better brand yourself as an expert and increase your value to your current employer.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Mark S. Luckie

Mark S. Luckie became Twitter’s creative content manager for journalism and the media in June 2012. Prior to joining Twitter, he was the social media editor for The Washington Post.

He founded the 10,000 Words blog in 2007 and sold it to Mediabistro in 2010.

Luckie is an experienced journalism trainer and also the author of The Digital Journalist’s Handbook.

Self-guided training in being an entrepreneurial journalist

Please check out other Reynolds self-guided training on entrepreneurial journalism, branding and social networking:

• Branding for Journalists: You Being You… Online
• Getting LinkedIn — Sourcing through Social Networking
• Digital Efficiency for Business Journalists — 36 Tips to Tame Info Overload
• Sales Strategies for Freelance Business Journalists
• How to Launch You.com — Build Your Personal Website
• How to Be an Entrepreneur as a Business Journalist
• Social Media 101, 202, 303

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

This Excellence in Journalism Conference workshop is sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. If you have any questions about the center’s training, please email Executive Director Linda Austin or call 602-496-9187.

The Particulars

When: 9:40-10:40 a.m.  June 21

Where: Salon K
San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter
101 Bowie St.
San Antonio, Texas 78205

Panelists: Pulitzer winners David
Barstow of The New York Times
and freelancer Alejandra Xanic
von Bertrab of Mexico City.

Moderator: Leonard Downie Jr.,
vice president at large of The Washington
Post and Weil Family Professor of
Journalism at the Walter Cronkite
School of Journalism and Mass
Communication

Host: This session takes place during the
Investigative Reporters and
Editors (IRE) annual conference.

Lodging:
San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter.

Conference hotel rates are
$170 a night, plus 16.75% tax,
through May 24 or until the room
block sells out.

Conference registration is
required.

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.

Barstow’s initial story on how Wal-Mart covered up its use of bribery to fuel its Mexican expansion (PDF) also won the 2012 Barlett & Steele Award for Investigative Business Journalism.

They will be questioned by longtime Washington Post editor Leonard “Len” Downie Jr. on how they obtained hundreds of confidential company documents and how they also used Mexico’s Freedom of Information Act. There will also be time for audience questions.

PANELISTS

The New York Times' David Barstow

David Barstow,a senior writer at The New York Times, is the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes. In 2013, he and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for “Wal-Mart Abroad,’’ a series that exposed Wal-Mart’s aggressive use of bribery to fuel its rapid expansion in Mexico.

In 2009, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for “Message Machine,’’ his series about the Pentagon’s hidden campaign to influence news coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2004, he and Lowell Bergman were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for articles about employers who committed egregious work place-safety violations that killed or injured hundreds of American workers. Before joining the Times in 1999, he was a reporter for The St. Petersburg Times in Florida, where he was a finalist for three Pulitzer Prizes.

Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab

Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab is a freelance journalist who shared the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting with Barstow. Xanic, as she’s known to colleagues, has worked for two decades as a reporter in Mexico. As a reporter with Siglo 21 newspaper in Guadalajara, she looked into the causes of a gasoline-leak explosion that destroyed several kilometers of homes. As a member of the paper’s investigative unit, she worked on stories ranging from drug trafficking to state corruption.

As a reporter in Mexico City, she worked for the Mexican edition of Gabriel García Marquez’s magazine, Cambio, and was an editor for four years at the business biweekly, Expansion. In 2010 and 2011, Xanic was part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists team that investigated big tobacco’s global lobbying strategies.

MODERATOR

Leonard Downie Jr. is vice president at large of The Washington Post, where he was executive editor from 1991 to 2008. He is also the Weil Family Professor of Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. During his 44 years in the Post newsroom, he was also an investigative reporter, editor on the local and national news staffs, London correspondent, and, from 1984 to 1991, managing editor under then-executive editor Ben Bradlee. As deputy metro editor from 1972 to 1974, Downie helped supervise the Post’s Watergate coverage. He also oversaw the newspaper’s coverage of every national election from 1984 through 2008. During his 17 years as executive editor, The Washington Post won 25 Pulitzer prizes.

More on the Award-Winning Wal-Mart investigation:

• The stories that won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting:

1. Vast Mexico bribery case hushed up by Wal-Mart after top-level struggle (PDF)
2. The bribery aisle: How Wal-Mart used payoffs to get its way in Mexico (PDF)

• ProPublica’s interview of David Barstow about the Wal-Mart stories in January 2013
• Barlett & Steele winner David Barstow: Unraveling the Wal-Mart bribery story on BusinessJournalism.org.
• Transcripts of Democracy Now’s two interviews of David in January 2013: Part 1 | Part 2

2012 Barlett & Steele Award Winners from Reynolds Center on Vimeo

The Particulars

When: 2:25-3:25 p.m. June 21

Where: Salon K
San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter
101 Bowie St.
San Antonio, Texas 78205

Instructor: Kelly Carr, Reynolds
Center senior online producer and
freelance investigative reporter for
Reuters.

Host:
This session takes place during the
Investigative Reporters and
Editors (IRE) annual conference.

Lodging:
San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter.

Conference hotel rates are
$170 a night, plus 16.75% tax,
through May 24 or until the room
block sells out.

Conference registration is
required.

In a Reuters' special report, Carr explained the difference between shell and shelf companies.

Unraveling financial schemes often involves tracing a myriad of corporations incorporated across the country and sometimes around the world.

Corporate entities called shells – companies with no significant assets or operations – and the people involved with them are often at the center of plots ranging from bogus investment firms to money-laundering endeavors to pump-and-dump stock scams.

This one-hour session is part of the Investigative Reporters & Editors annual conference in San Antonio, and is designed to help you understand shell companies and their role in fraud.

The training will be led by Kelly Carr, a Reynolds Center staffer and freelance investigative journalist whose reporting on the use of shell and shelf companies won a 2012 Gerald Loeb Award.

This session will also help you understand the characteristics of shell companies, their legitimate and illegitimate purposes in the business sector, and methods for backgrounding and connecting intricate webs of firms and individuals scattered around the globe. You’ll gain tools for tracking corporate investigations in your coverage area.

The Reynolds Center will also present the pre-conference session, Breaking Local Stories with Economic Data on June 19 at 2 p.m., and another IRE conference session with Pulitzer winners David Barstow and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab on June 21 at 9:40 a.m.

Can’t make it to IRE?

Check out Carr’s one-hour webinar on the same topic, May 21 at noon or 4 p.m. ET.

IS THIS SESSION FOR YOU?

This session will be useful for any journalist covering almost any beat. Shell companies can be incorporated in any state and around the world. They play a role in stories about various frauds in a large variety of sectors, from health care and politics to investing and online enterprises.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• The basics: what shell companies are, why they exist and the legitimate and illegitimate uses for these entities.
• How shell companies play a role in global corruption and how to begin track those schemes locally.
• Tactics for backgrounding shell companies through state incorporation documents, other public records and various online tools.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Kelly Carr

Kelly Carr joined the Reynolds Center in 2007 after working as a journalist for multiple publications, including The Arizona Republic. She is the center’s senior online producer. As a freelance investigative reporter for Reuters, she won the a 2012 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for a series detailing the use of U.S. shell and shelf companies.

The series also won the National Press Club Award for Consumer Journalism (Periodicals), the New York Press Club Business Reporting Award and the 2011 Foreign Press Association Media Award for Financial/Economic Reporting.

Kelly has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from West Virginia University. She also was an adjunct journalism professor at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School, a fellow at The Poynter Institute and a contributing writer for Cancer Stories: Lessons in Love, Loss & Hope.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

This free webinar is sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

The Reynolds Center is funded by a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation in Las Vegas. Besides its free regional workshops and online training, the center runs BusinessJournalism.org, offering daily tips, training and resources for those who want to do a better job of covering business.

Those who successfully complete three regional workshops or webinars presented by the Reynolds Center are eligible to receive a “Circle of Achievement” award certificate. If you have any questions about the webinar or the center, please email Executive Director Linda Austin or call 602-496-9187.

The Particulars

When:
9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 28, 2013

Where:
Room 2195, Vilas Communication Hall
University of Wisconsin-Madison
821 University Ave., Madison, Wis.

Instructors:
Alec Klein, journalism professor at
Northwestern University;
Chris Roush, business journalism professor
at the University of North Carolina

Host:
Madison Pro Chapter of the
Society of Professional Journalists

Lodging:
Doubletree, 525 W. Johnson St.
UW’s Union South, 1308 W. Dayton St.
UW’s Lowell Center

Parking: Type “Vilas” in the search box,
and tick the box for
public parking on this map.

Photo by flickr user spectacle productions

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, Wis., on Saturday, Sept. 28.

Sign up here for this free workshop.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

How to:

• Find public information on private companies
• Ask 15 smart questions about small businesses
• Find and pitch your best investigative business story
• Develop sources and get people to talk to you
• Find and utilize public records in investigative business journalism

IS THIS WORKSHOP FOR YOU?

This workshop is for any journalist who wants to find and pursue investigative business stories. Novice or veteran, business journalist or general-assignment reporter, you’ll take away something that will help you the next time you pursue a business investigation.

YOUR INSTRUCTORS

Alec Klein

Alec Klein joined the Medill journalism faculty in fall 2008 after eight years at The Washington Post as an investigative business reporter.  His investigation into the reuse of single-use medical devices won the Society of American Business Editors and Writers award for special projects and prompted an investigation by the Government Accountability Office, as well as industry reform.

His best-selling book, Stealing Time: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Collapse of AOL Time Warner,was named one of the “Best Business Books” by Library Journal and Strategy + Business. The book built on his coverage of AOL at The Post, for which Alec won the Gerald Loeb Award, business journalism’s highest honor. Before coming to Northwestern, Klein taught journalism at Georgetown University and American University. He was a business writer-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Scholar in business journalism and the founding director of the Carolina Business News Initiative at the University of North Carolina. He was named Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Teacher of the Year in 2009 and the North Carolina Professor of the Year in 2010.

He is the author of Show Me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication and co-author of The SABEW Writer’s Stylebook: 2,000 Business Terms Defined and Rated.

AGENDA: Finding Your Best Investigative Business Story

•  9:30-10 a.m.: Registration and continental breakfast
• 10-10:10 a.m.: Welcome, introductions
• 10:10-11:10 a.m.: Uncovering public information on private companies – Chris Roush
• 11:10-11:30 a.m.: Case study – Where would you find the info? — Roush
• 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 15 smart questions to ask small businesses — Roush
• 12:30-1 p.m.: Box lunch provided
• 1-2 p.m.:  Finding and pitching your best investigative business story – Alec Klein
• 2-2:20 p.m.: Exercise – Write the first paragraph of your editor’s memo pitching your investigative story. Critique those willing to share. — Klein
• 2:20-3:20 p.m.: Developing and interviewing sources in investigative business journalism — Klein
• 3:20-3-30 p.m.: Break
• 3:30-4:30 p.m.: Finding and using public documents in investigative business journalism – Klein

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Please do not register unless you are sincere about participating. Signing up and not participating deprives someone else of the opportunity.

Those who successfully complete three regional workshops or online seminars presented by the Reynolds Center are eligible to receive a “Circle of Achievement” certificate.

This free seminar is sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. If you have any questions about the workshop or the center, please email Executive Director Linda Austin or call 602-496-9187.

The David Dietz Fellowship, an award honoring David Dietz a longtime IRE member and supporter, covers conference registration fees and provides $750 for travel and lodging expenses. The fellow will also receive a yearlong IRE membership and a year-long mentorship with a veteran investigative journalist.

The IRE conference will be held in San Antonio on June 20-23. Applicants must have less than 10 years experience as a professional journalist. Details to apply are on IRE’s website.

David Dietz

Dietz is a former Bloomberg Markets reporter who passed away from cancer last June. A Columbia Journalism Review article highlighted one of Dietz most notable investigations, “Broken Promises,” which it dubbed a “staggering scandal.” Dietz, along with Bloomberg’s William Selway, Martin Z. Braun, examined $7 million in tax-exempt bond deals that generated millions in fees and investment gains. An exhaustive reporting effort revealed that taxpayers received no benefit. (Here’s more background on Dietz’s impressive journalism career.)

IRE also offers a myriad of other fellowship opportunities open to all experience levels. You can find more details and instruction on how to apply at IRE’s fellowship/scholarship page. 

Photo by flickr user Jon Sittner

The free workshop, “Uncovering the Best Local Business Stories,” was originally held at the University of Arkansas on April 12, 2013.

Geared to the needs of generalists on small staffs, this training will arm you with resources, tips and ideas to bring more meaningful coverage of this important topic to your community. Though examples used are focused on Arkansas businesses, the techniques used to gather data can be duplicated in any state.

This workshop was also held in Kentucky and Texas in 2012. Check out additional resources and videos at the 2012 self-guided training page.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• How to find good stories in the business of government, including budgets and contracts,
• How to cover economic-development agencies at the state and local levels,
• How to find public information on private companies,
• How to find stories in publicly available databases, such as incorporation records and real estate transactions,
• How to find stories in small businesses, including 15 questions to ask for small-business profiles, and
• How to localize national and international stories for your audience.

YOUR INSTRUCTORS

Linda Austin is the executive director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. A former editor of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader and The (Fort Wayne, Ind.) News-Sentinel, she is also a former business editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Jeff Porter is the special projects director for the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) at the University of Missouri. He spent two decades as a journalist in Arkansas, working at the Batesville Daily Guard and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Scholar in business journalism and the founding director of the Carolina Business News Initiative at the University of North Carolina. He was named Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Teacher of the Year in 2009 and the North Carolina Professor of the Year in 2010. He is the author of Show Me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication and co-author of The SABEW Writer’s Stylebook: 2,000 Business Terms Defined and Rated.

Carlie Kollath Wells is a freelance journalist in New Orleans. She was a business reporter at the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo, Miss., from 2007 until February 2013. She fell in love with journalism in high school and discovered business journalism while working for two trade publications in New York after graduating from the University of Mississippi.

SELF-GUIDED LESSON

Take a look through the workshop session recordings and resources below. At your own pace, you can walk through essential tips and techniques for finding great business stories in your own community.

Blogger Rosland Gammon has interviewed more than 500 business journalists over the last four years about how they’ve done great stories. She has shared their tips and techniques with you here on BusinessJournalism.org.

During the session, she will interview two top investigative reporters for their tips. Both are SABEW 2012 Best in Business Award winners: Michael W. Hudson, senior editor for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and Alison Young, reporter for USA Today. She will query Hudson about his winning entry in the investigative category: Fraud and Folly: The Untold Story of GE’s Subprime Debacle.

Young was the lead reporter on Ghost Factories, an investigation into long-closed lead smelters that continue to pollute neighborhoods. It won in the innovation category.

YOU WILL LEARN HOW TO

• Identify under-utilized databases and use more well-known databases, such as the SEC’s EDGAR, in new ways.
• Use different techniques to find real people to illustrate stories.
• Use strategies to track and organize information.
• Employ storytelling techniques used by some of the best journalists.

YOUR INSTRUCTORS

As a blogger for the Reynolds Center’s BusinessJournalism.org, Rosland Gammon has interviewed more than 500 business journalists about how they produced great stories.

A former business reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer and Bloomberg News, Gammon also teaches communications at Alverno College in Milwaukee.

Michael W. Hudson is senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. He has won a George Polk Award for magazine reporting, a John Hancock Award for business journalism, and accolades from the National Press Club, the White House Correspondents’ Association, the American Bar Association and the N.Y. State Society of CPAs.

He is the author of THE MONSTER: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America—and Spawned a Global Crisis.

Alison Young is a reporter on USA Today’s investigative team and serves on the board of directors of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Young’s honors include two Scripps Howard Awards, two Gerald Loeb Awards, two National Headliners and a Barlett & Steele Award, as well as honors from the Associated Press Media Editors, Sigma Delta Chi, the Heywood Broun Awards and the National Press Club.

SELF-GUIDED LESSON

Check out the session PowerPoint below for storytelling best practices.