Investigative reporting allows you to dig deeper into complex issues and corruption. This guide by John Emshwiller, a veteran Wall Street Journal reporter, will maximize your chances of finding an in-depth story.
The resources, online and otherwise, for investigative business reporting are as vast and varied as the topics that a reporter pursues. Below are a number that could be useful over a range of different kinds of investigations. Websites: U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission: The main webpage for the SEC, contains lots of information on securities [...]
Given the range of possible investigative projects, there isn’t really any particular glossary of terms to cover the area. However, here are some terms that could come in handy at times. 10K: A company’s annual report filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission. 8K: Term to describe an SEC filing in which a public company [...]
Localizing an investigative business story – assuming it isn’t a piece that starts and ends in your backyard – often involves picking some broader national or even international subject and then finding a hook close to home. Given that companies are involved in practically every aspect of life, there is a wide field to choose [...]
It is a truism of a campaign that “all politics is local.”’ And so it goes with campaign finance. With the excitement of the Presidential race taking center stage, how is a reporter for a regional or local paper able to get a handle on cash coming from their area and flowing to the national [...]
Ames Alexander and Karen Garloch of the Charlotte Observer, and Joseph Neff of the News & Observer challenged the nonprofit status of hospitals in the state by looking at how much charity care they offer for the tax breaks they receive. The Charlotte Observer’s five-day series generated more feedback than anything the paper published in [...]
Matt Apuzzo, a Reynolds Center presenter, and Michael J. Berens, a 2011 winner of the Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Reporting, have each won the Pulitzer Prize for their investigative work. Apuzzo and his Associated Press’ colleagues, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley, grabbed an Investigative Reporting Pulitzer Prize for their probe into the New [...]
After one of the longest fights over public records in New Jersey, Ted Sherman at The Star-Ledger finally got to see what the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority had been fighting to reveal: more than $3.3 million in never-disclosed givebacks. The authority runs New Jersey’s racetracks, the stadium where the Giants and Jets played, [...]
Press-Enterprise reporter Kimberly Pierceall urges other business journalists to get organized with Google Docs, which lets you update spreadsheets and other documents when you’re on-the-go. The cloud-based tool has been especially helpful to Pierceall as she navigates the complex turns of a years-long project to transform a former military base into a commercial airport. The [...]
When Baltimore’s high property tax rates became a central topic in last summer’s mayoral election, reporters at The Baltimore Sun sought novel ways of examining the issue. The rates are “far and away, the highest in Maryland,” so it was not a new story, said reporter Scott Calvert. In order to explore new territory and [...]
