The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation is supporting the launch of Investigative Editing Corps, an innovative approach to linking investigative editors with newsrooms that want to do investigative reporting.
The Logan Foundation’s seed funding will allow Investigative Editing Corps to start building a network of editors/producers who can work with local news organizations across all platforms: print/digital/television/radio.
In announcing the grant, Jonathan Logan, president and CEO of the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, expressed support for investigative reporting and the hope that other funders will join in the effort.
Investigative Editing Corps “is not a ‘magic bullet,'” Logan said. “It won’t replace all the investigative editors lost in endless rounds of cost-cutting — but we are inspired by Rose Ciotta’s creative idea to help fill a need in newsrooms across America, especially in small and mid-sized markets. We hope other funders and local supporters will join us in helping to grow the IEC.”
Logan also said the project is very timely. “The painstaking, time consuming work of investigative journalism that creates real change has never been more important. Despite multiple blows to newsroom staff and budgets, we know that dedicated reporters are eager to work on hard-hitting reporting projects that hold power to account in their communities,” Logan said.
“These projects also need the often-unsung heroes of the newsroom— strong, seasoned editors. That’s why we are supporting the launch of Investigative Editing Corps.”
The project was founded by Rose Ciotta, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative editor who co-edited an investigation into violence in Philadelphia schools that won The Philadelphia Inquirer the 2012 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service. Ciotta has had a long award-winning career in local news across all platforms.
She leads the project as executive director.
Investigative Editing Corps got its first boost in 2017 when it was selected for a start-up award by the Jim Bettinger News Innovation Fund of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships of Stanford University.
“The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation’s support will allow the launch of an innovative way for news organizations to collaborate with investigative journalists who want to help local news thrive,” Ciotta said.
As Ciotta wrote in her proposal to the Berkeley-based JLFF: The new organization “would work collaboratively with news organizations to help them stretch their resources so they can do investigative reporting. It would focus on areas where local media is most at risk.”
Ciotta said the idea came from surveying the landscape of American journalism: the shrinking of local news resulting in expanding news deserts across America, the benefits of investigative reporting, and the draining of journalism jobs that has left many experienced investigative journalists out of work.
Investigative Editing Corps is a fiscally sponsored project of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Ciotta is an associate editor at EdSource, an education web site where she directs projects and coverage.