John Christie on non-profit news and developing a document state of mind
Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting
John Christie, founder and publisher of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, has helped fill public policy story gaps uncovered by mainstream media. A recent series in his publication examined a green energy program that had received millions of dollars in public funding, but had done little work.
While participating in the Society of American Business Editors and Writers’ Covering Public Pension Seminar in June, Christie shared some of his tips for developing investigative stories.
Stay current: “Every day, there are stories in the newspaper that are potential investigative stories. Most daily stories are fairly shallow and are opportunities to find out more about them. There’s always more to those stories. You don’t just sit there and dream up an idea for an investigative story; they’re in the paper every day.”
Go back: “Look at legislators, governors, agency heads. They’re all making changes to policy and when they make those changes they make claims: this will lower taxes, take care of the environment, help retirees. Go back and find out what those claims are and find out what really happened as a result. That’s the accountability aspect of investigative reporting.”
Sources know sources: “Whenever you’re interviewing someone for an investigative story, always ask them at the end of the interview, who else should I talk to? That’s a great way to find more sources that you didn’t have to begin with.”
• FOIA and FOIA again: “Have a document state of mind. The best information for investigative stories is frequently from documents. They should be your primary source of information for investigative stories, not just interviews. There’s a wealth of information out there from research organizations. Look for those documents, learn how to do FOIA requests. Sometimes documents lead to other documents. Governments are always providing information and documents, you just have to find them.”
In the video below, Christie talks about his experience covering business in a non-profit news outlet.
