Bob Stepno's Other Journalism Weblog
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Thursday, July 31, 2008
 

Staff cutbacks by one corporate news conglomerate after another are creating a legion of "self-unemployed" journalists... Dennie Williams, long ago a colleague of mine at The Hartford Courant, points out the difference between covering breaking news on a staff paycheck and uncovering harder-to-break news with fewer reporters, fewer editors, and nobody answering the phone after 4 p.m.

See his Editor & Publisher column on the plight of freelance journalists: An Investigative Reporter's Plea.

"As an investigative reporter for over four decades for The Hartford Courant, I always thought the toughest of all tasks was getting answers from politicians, corporate heads and all varieties of scofflaws. Since November 2005, I have been an active freelance writer. After hundreds of emails to newspapers and news Internet sites soliciting investigative reporting ideas and stories, I now believe that today the news media is a tougher nut to crack than any investigative target. Why?"

On a related note, Charles Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity, recently made a pitch for "can-do" optimism about alternative funding for investigative work in this PBS MediaShift interview by Mark Glaser, Digging Deeper:

"I actually think it's one of the most exciting times in the history of journlism even though it sometimes feels like there's a piano coming down on our heads... I'm a doer, not a bemoaner, and I'm tired of bemoaning, I want to create." (more)

What's a "doer" to do? Lewis is launching an Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University. Also see the "recent work" section of his home page, including Nieman Reports and Columbia Journalism Review articles on non-profit sources of funding journalism projects.

In fact, while you're at the Nieman Reports site, check out the rest of that issue, particularly these two sections...

Nonprofit approach:Digital transformation:


All of a sudden, I think I've got a good start on the reading list for my Specialized Reporting class for this fall!

11:56:52 AM    comment []


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