Investigative journalism: Online, Jan. 25-29

Alec Klein

Polish your skills in investigative business journalism with Alec Klein, professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Alec is a best-selling nonfiction author and an award-winning former investigative reporter for The Washington Post. Over two decades, his investigations at The Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Baltimore Sun and The Virginian-Pilot have led to significant reforms, Congressional hearings, federal laws, criminal convictions and more than half a billion dollars in government fines.

A highlight of the free, five-hour Webinar, “Investigative Business Journalism on a Beat,” will be a live chat, moderated by Alec, with five investigative business journalists. Before the interactive session, Alec will profile each of the journalists and produce a podcast of his interviews with them, which will be available soon on BusinessJournalism.org.

Taught one hour a day from Jan. 25-29, Alec will take you through the investigative story from start to finish: refining and pitching an idea, developing and interviewing sources, plumbing public documents, and organizing and presenting the story effectively in multimedia. A highlight of the week will be a live chat, moderated by Alec, with five other investigative reporting greats.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• Monday: Refining and pitching the investigative story idea
• Tuesday: Developing and interviewing sources
• Wednesday: Using public documents
• Thursday: Organizing and presenting the story effectively across platforms
• Friday: Alec will host a live chat with five investigative business journalists. Get answers to your questions by posing them to this distinguished panel of experts.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Alec Klein joined the Medill faculty in fall 2008 after eight years at The Washington Post as an investigative business reporter. His last series for The Post documented abuses in the housing industry. An earlier series that investigated the practice of reusing single-use medical devices won the Society of Business Editors and Writers award for special projects and prompted an investigation by the Government Accountability Office, as well as industry reform.

Another of his Post investigations into the big-three credit-rating firms prompted an investigation by the New York attorney general, Congressional hearings and a federal law to strengthen government oversight of the industry.

Alec’s best-selling 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. His second book, A Class Apart: Prodigies, Pressure, and Passion Inside One of America’s Best High Schools, was named “One of the Best Education Books of the Year” by the American School Board Journal.

Before coming to Northwestern, Alec taught journalism at Georgetown University and American University. He was a business writer-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University, Alec is also a playwright and novelist.

THE PANELISTS
Alexandra Berzon, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, whose work led the Las Vegas Sun to the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service

Gary Cohn, winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting at the Baltimore Sun

Mark Maremont, senior editor for the Wall Street Journal, whose team won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its stories on the back-dating of options for executives

Larry Roberts, executive editor of the nonprofit Huffington Post Investigative Fund and former investigations editor at The Washington Post, who has directly overseen three Pulitzer Prize winners.

Bill Sizemore, investigative reporter at The Virginian-Pilot, who was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Please do not register unless you are sincere about attending the workshop and have been given authorization by your editor to do so. Since our workshops are often oversubscribed, no-shows keep other potential registrants from attending.

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

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