LOCAL INVESTIGATIONS

What journalists are saying about Investigative Editing Corps

• Report for America often works with small newsrooms that have intriguing story ideas but no bandwidth to execute investigative projects. Our partnership with Investigative Editing Corps has enabled our corps members throughout the country to produce important stories with real impact, change the trajectory of their careers, and help newsrooms demonstrate to the public that they produce work worth supporting.

  Kim Kleman, executive director, Report for America

• Editors are connectors between the facts reporters gather and the people who need this information, the hidden strength and standard-bearers for investigative journalism. The Investigative Editing Corps is a great idea to support every newsroom and help journalists do their best on the most important stories they investigate to serve the public.

  Sue Cross, former executive director, Institute for Nonprofit News

• As quickly as our industry changes, the one constant is the need for investigative journalism. A program, such as Investigative Editing Corps, would ensure that small newsrooms could make a difference.

  Lisa Micco, former executive editor, Beaver County Times

• Like a great source or a smoking gun document, the creation of an investigative editing corps will help the next generation of investigative reporters break the stories critical to the health of American democracy. Because, as the great editor, John Carroll liked to say, in a democratic society there is no mightier sword than the written word.

  Vernon Loeb, executive editor, Inside Climate News

• The hands-on mentorship I received from Investigative Editing Corp transformed me from a journalist into an investigative reporter... I’m no longer the same person I was – I am more capable of delivering impactful journalism, and I am more motivated than ever to go for it.

  Danielle Gamble, former reporter/city editor, Olean Times Herald

• It’s critical for local newspapers to turn over rocks and reveal facts that help set the public agenda in local communities, but most newspapers now lack the editing punch to launch such projects and bring them to successful completion.

  Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

• As the former leader of a small but ambitious investigative newsroom, I know how important it is to have editing support. The Investigative Editing Corps is an idea whose time has come.

  Susan Smith Richardson, former managing editor, The Guardian

• With shrinking newsrooms and constant threats of survival, reporters are often denied a path to become great investigative journalists. The Investigative Editing Corps is the perfect answer to this crisis, providing editorial oversight and real mentorship and training for young journalists, helping them to meander the complex challenges of investigations and produce the stories that make a difference now and in the future.

  Duane Pohlman, chief investigative reporter/anchor WKRC-TV, Cincinnati, Ohio

• Working with IEC taught me the relentless rigor needed to tackle a story of this scale and helped push me to become a stronger reporter and investigative journalist.

  Michaela Towfighi, reporter, Concord Monitor

• The editor that IEC provided helped me navigate thorny reporting issues and shaped the story with insightful edits. I cannot recommend this program enough to a reporter in a small newsroom looking to bring an investigative project to fruition.

  Jake Shore, The Current, Savannah, GA