By Mikel Schaefer
WVUE-TV New Orleans

Following the conclusion of the Boston IRE Conference, I felt compelled to share my experience as an IRE Conference first-timer, especially since I was a fairly rare species at the event. Unlike most attending the three-day conference, I was not an investigative reporter, but one of a handful of television news directors. Of the nearly 1,200 who attended, only several of us charged with running television news rooms were there. In these days of shrinking budgets, departments and employees, coupled with the increasing demand on our time, all I could think was I ...

By Pamela Cyran 
@CyranStar

Graduating? Mid-career? These job-hunting tips from veteran reporters are for everyone in the business.

El Nuevo Herald Executive Editor Manny Garcia was joined by Stephen Stock, KNTV-San Francisco, Sarah Cohen, Duke University, and Len Downie of the Washington Post, on “Building your career: A roundtable discussion.” The panel offered advice on how to get ahead in today’s evolving digital era of journalism. Here were some of their suggestions:

Connect and collaborate

• “So far you’re doing the right thing,” Garcia said. “You’re at IRE.” 
• Connect with people. “If you don’t, you have ruined ...

By Châu Mai
@maingocchau

After spending weeks, months or even years to do an investigation, you want to write an interesting story that makes readers really want to read it.

“Your goal is to pull people in and your second goal is to keep them there,” Seattle Times investisgative reporter Ken Armstrong said. 

He and Steve Fainaru, a senior writer with ESPN’s investigative and enterprise unit, shared their experience and tips in “Writing the investigative story.”

Fainaru, a 2008  Pulitzer Prize winner for International Reporting, said the main thing he learned from covering private security contractors in Iraq ...

By Pamela Cyran 
@CyranStar

• See video of Abramson's entire speech
• From The Boston Globe: New York Times editor chides White House

New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson's keynote address during the IRE Awards Luncheon stressed the importance of investigative reporting and warned of a crack down against sources who leak information. 

Abramson reminded us that 2012 marks an important year in investigative reporting history – the 40^th anniversary of Watergate.

“Their reporting sparked my interest in investigative reporting,” she said. 

Abramson said she now has a computer chip in her brain that constantly tells her to ...

By Shuyi Wang

Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, has become an essential tool for investigative reporters in China, said Ying Chan, journalism professor from the University of Hong Kong on the Saturday’s panel "Investigative Reporting in China."

Chan cited the most discussed news in China recently to explain the power of Weibo.

China’s government suspended three officials after they forced a young woman to abort her child seven months into the pregnancy. This happened just days after the family posted the mother’s photo with the remains of the fetus.

“It was the most popular topic on ...

By Châu Mai
@maingocchau

How do you get people to open up? How do you get the key information you're are looking for?

The first thing before we’re heading to the interview, according to Raquel Rutledge, an award-winning reporter of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is to fully prepare and know the subject well, by googling or using familiar sources.

Rutledge, Ira Rosen, producer at 60 Minutes, and John Ferrugia, investigative reporter of KMGH-TV 7News, shared their experience and tips during “Talking your way to the truth: The art of the interview.”

To prepare for an interview, Rutledge ...

By Châu Mai
@maingocchau

To survive and succeed in the Internet era, the newsroom has to transform itself and instantly keep up with the latest technological developments. Matt Wells, The Guardian US blogs and networks editor based in New York, and Emily Ramshaw, editor of The Texas Tribune, talked about ways to remake the newsroom during “Building the digital newsroom.”

Ramshaw shared four successful strategies her news organization applied since it was launched in 2009.

• Reporters are also editors and editors are also reporters.
• Hire “the absolutely best in the business” to draw in the most attention.
• Pushing not ...

Couldn't make it to the conference or missed a panel you wanted to see? Watch online. 

Some panels from the conference were recorded and posted online by Latakoo. Special thanks to the company for providing this service.

By Pamela Cyran
@CyranStar

Investigating vulnerable populations such as the elderly, mentally disabled, and even children, is extremely taxing. Many times it’s finding the story in the first place that’s troubling. Proving the story is another task.

In many cases these victims can’t speak for themselves. Maybe they have no family or family are hesitant to criticize people who’ve been taking care of their loved ones. Sometimes victims can’t be counted as reliable witnesses to what they’ve gone through.

These victims have no voice and that’s what makes this job important, panelists explained ...

By Chelsea Sheasley
@csheasley 

What’s the best way to follow the money, especially in an election year? Joe Stephens, The Washington Post, Duff Wilson, Reuters, and Angie Moreschi, a former investigative reporter and now director of communications at James Hoyer Law Firm, shared the databases and documents that helped them in their latest investigations during their panel, Paying for Political Favor.

Stephens, who covered the Solyndra scandal, stressed that “these documents are ones that I’ve used over and over again,” in his career, from covering the environment and stimulus spending, to reporting on the presidential election, and state ...