Reuters collaborates to investigate Las Vegas Sands casino in Macau
Lowell Bergman
Reuters reached outside its newsroom for help in putting together an investigative piece looking into the connection between a reputed organized crime leader and the Las Vegas Sands‘ operation in Macau. U.S. casinos operating in Macau are headquartered in Nevada and must comply with its laws that are intended to keep organized crime figures out of casinos.
Reuters staffers Jim Impoco and Claudia Parsons edited the casino story with Lowell Bergman, whose investigation of the tobacco industry became the basis of the film “The Insider.” Bergman is a producer/correspondent for PBS’s “Frontline” and a professor at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. The report was described as being in collaboration with the Investigative Reporting Program at Berkeley. Reporter Matt Isaacs, who spent six months on the story, is a fellow in the program.
Today’s Tip: Try collaborating with other media or organizations.
As time and financial resources shrink, more news outlets have started working with nonprofit and academic groups, as noted in this blog post by Marion Geiger last year.
The Center for Public Integrity, Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica have their own staffs. If you have an idea, contact them to see if you can work together. Also, think about local journalism schools and public broadcasting outlets. This interactive project on area Burmese refugees by The News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne was produced in a collaboration with the local public radio and TV stations and the local university.
Options for funding include:
- The Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund accepts queries from editors and reporters to help with costs. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
- The Fund for Investigative Journalism offers grants that average $5,000 for local projects. Deadline: April 5.
- The International Reporting Project offers fellowships to up to 10 journalists to travel and report from abroad for five weeks. Deadline: April 1.
- The Alicia Patterson Foundation offers fellowships of $20,000 for six months or $40,000 for 12 months to pursue a reporting project full-time. Deadline: Oct. 1.
