Insight into Investigative

By Kelly Carr
February 19, 2008 11:56 AM

While reporting a story, Alec Klein said he sometimes feels like Columbo.

He’s often confused and finds himself asking both obvious and stupid questions as an investigative business reporter for The Washington Post. And more times than he can count, he has scoured through financial statements that he doesn’t understand.

But being hungry for knowledge, Klein said, is the key to smart and effective reporting. Journalists pretending to know everything put themselves at a disadvantage.

Klein explained his reporting techniques to a group of almost 80 journalists and editors who gathered in Boston earlier this month for the New England Press Association’s annual conference. Klein led a workshop on “Investigative Business Journalism in Your Community,” which was hosted by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism.

“There is no benefit to trying to act like we know more than we do,” Klein said. “There is a danger because it’s easy to do that, but we are always tapping into new things. I want people to talk to me like a fifth-grader when they are explaining things, so then I can write a story for millions of people.”

Klein is a veteran journalist whose year-long reporting into AOL’s business practices sparked an investigation into the company by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department.  His reporting prompted AOL executives to resign after the company launched an internal investigation and later admitted it had improperly reported at least $190 million in advertising revenue.

That story is just one example of the in-depth journalism Klein has tackled. While working at The Sun in Baltimore, he wrote a piece on the cigar industry that prompted two federal investigations and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Klein said to do investigative work reporters should be fearless and committed to understanding all the pieces of a story. He reminded the group that there is no secret formula for these types of stories, just hard work, persistence and a willingness to learn about unfamiliar topics.

Alec Klein’s tips for stronger sourcing and reporting in investigative business stories

• Leave your business cards, stacks of them, wherever you go.


• When interviewing someone, keep the conversation going even after you’ve asked all of your questions. Small talk can be very revealing.


• Don’t forget the gadflies on the beat. These people are often dismissed, but they usually have files of information because they follow one topic so intensely.


• Ask for bios, resumes and photos upfront of executives at companies you are covering. After an unflattering story, those basic elements can be tough to get.


• Be nice to public relations representatives. They can be helpful in ways they didn’t mean to be.


• Use the circling effect. Start from the outside – the former employees, union people, associations, customers and competitors – and then work your way inside the company.

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism