New member benefit will provide free access to FOIAengine

IRE professional members can now get free access to FOIAengine, a database for researching FOIA requests. The tool, created last year by PoliScio Analytics, contains more than 230,000 FOIA record requests from 2021 to the present.

PoliScio co-founders Randy Miller, an attorney, and John Jenkins, a journalist, created FOIAengine in part to replace the public record request database on FOIAonline.gov, which the federal government maintained until shutting it down in October 2023.

To get a free one-year subscription, please email Amy Eaton at amy@ire.org. Free access to FOIAengine is available only to professional members of IRE. This special subscription is the only way an individual can access the database, and IRE is the only media association authorized to access this resource.

Like the FOIAonline database, FOIAengine provides data about the record requests only, not the results of the requests. The new tool has more robust searching capabilities and standardizes data from different agencies to make it easier to work with.

You can search and filter records by the agency the request was submitted to, the requester's organization and type (news media, law firm, financial institution, etc.), the requester’s name, date and the text of the request. You can also copy or export 100 records at a time to analyze in other tools.

Jenkins points out that journalists are not the only ones using FOIA. Knowing who is asking for what information can mean that something of interest is going on – or is about to.

“It’s a set of signals,” he said. “Nobody does this for the hell of it. They always have an agenda.”

You can also see examples of stories that came from FOIAengine research on the PoliScio website and Law Street Media.

If you have questions about FOIAengine, please contact David Meyers at david@poliscio.com.

Learn more about becoming a member of IRE and member benefits.

The late Bob Read, managing editor and senior investigative producer for Inside Edition, has been nominated for the IRE Ring of Honor.

The Ring of Honor is a fundraising initiative that supports fellowships for investigative journalists. It celebrates current and past IRE members who have made significant contributions to the organization and to the field of investigative journalism.

"Bob believed wholeheartedly in IRE's mission to train the next generation of investigative journalists with ethics and compassion."

Cindy Galli, ABC News

Since joining Inside Edition in 1990, Read was instrumental in establishing the show’s reputation for exposing scams, rip-offs and hazards that threaten the safety of consumers.

Under his leadership, Inside Edition’s investigative unit produced hard-hitting reports exposing adoption fraud, home repair swindles, child labor in the U.S. and the lavish lifestyle of mega-church preachers. Their investigations have earned many of journalism’s highest honors including the George Polk Award, the IRE Medal, the National Press Club Award and Sigma Delta Chi Award.

But for Read, it was the people whose lives he touched that mattered most.

"He left an indelible mark on all who worked alongside him, especially those that he closely mentored under his wing," said Charlie McLravy, Inside Edition senior producer, in his nomination for Read. "There's a long list of producers who operated next to Read in the investigative trenches that later went on to work and become managers themselves at the networks."

IRE board member Cindy Galli worked on Read’s team at Inside Edition for 13 years before moving to ABC, where she is now executive producer of the investigative unit.

"Bob believed wholeheartedly in IRE's mission to train the next generation of investigative journalists with ethics and compassion," she said. "Generous in giving of his time and talent, he always ensured that his team attended conferences, often giving up his place to allow someone else the opportunity."

Read was diagnosed with COVID-19 in December 2020, after spending 10 months directing Inside Edition’s pandemic coverage. He died in January 2021 at age 60.

After a member is nominated for the Ring of Honor, the IRE Board of Directors reviews the nomination. If the nomination is approved, friends and family launch a fundraising campaign in the nominee's honor. A minimum of $2,500 in donations must be raised for a nominee to be inducted into the Ring of Honor.

The board approved Read’s nomination at the June 14 board meeting. You can support Read’s nomination by making a donation. Please specify that your donation is for Bob Read.

Supporters have two years to raise the funds. Read could be inducted as soon as the IRE conference June 20-23, 2024, in Anaheim, California.

Tax-deductible donations to the Ring of Honor memorialize the legacy of these influential mentors and newsroom leaders while financially supporting the next generation of investigative journalists. Fellowships allow qualified recipients to access IRE benefits, such as attending conferences, participating in training and networking with other investigative journalists.

To nominate someone for the IRE Ring of Honor, fill out a short nomination form available under the "Donate" link on the IRE website.

If you have questions or want more information, send an email to Anna Lopez at anna@ire.org.

IRE is proud to be one of many journalism associations working to educate, empower and connect journalists across the globe. We believe the field of journalism is stronger when we work together and learn from each other.

So this year, our organization has renewed its focus on exchanging perspectives and expertise with other journalism associations. In addition to our own conferences, bootcamps and training programs, the IRE team has trained at six partner conferences so far in 2023, with six more coming up before the end of the year.

“As much as we love having people come to our events, we know as an organization it's critical that we also get out to other journalism association events to build relationships and exchange ideas and perspectives,” IRE Director of Diversity and Inclusion Francisco Vara-Orta said. “That in turn helps enrich what we do for our members and, we hope, for theirs as well.”

Along with Executive Director Diana Fuentes, Vara-Orta has led IRE’s strategy to engage with a wide range of organizations — with special focus on those that serve journalists of color and other historically marginalized groups.

In June, IRE board member and former training director Mark Walker served as a faculty member and mentor in the Maynard Institute for Journalism’s Maynard 200 Fellowship program in Fort Worth, Texas.

In July, Vara-Orta attended the National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference in Miami with IRE training directors Adam Rhodes and Laura Moscoso. Vara-Orta took part in panels on mental health support for queer colleagues, in partnership with NAHJ’s LGBTQ+ task force, and education coverage, in partnership with the Education Writers Association (EWA). Rhodes and Moscoso presented five training sessions in English and Spanish on topics such as FOIA requests, accountability interviews and hands-on data journalism training.

The following week, Fuentes attended the Asian American Journalists Association conference in Washington, D.C, conducting a training session on accessing public data.

In August, Fuentes will attend the NABJ Convention in Birmingham, Alabama, with Walker, who will present two sessions on investigative and data journalism. Vara-Orta will travel to Winnipeg, Canada, to take part in a panel on freedom of information requests at NAJA’s National Native Media Conference. Meanwhile, Rhodes will attend NLGJA’s 2023 National Convention in Philadelphia to offer an introduction to investigative reporting and public records.

Our training outreach efforts also extend to organizations that focus on particular beats. Earlier this year, Vara-Orta offered training on source diversity at the EWA conference in Atlanta. IRE Senior Training Director Liz Lucas also presented an introduction to data journalism at the Association of Health Care Journalists conference in St. Louis.

Coming up, Lucas and Fuentes will attend the Global Investigative Journalism Network conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, where Lucas will offer five training sessions on data journalism. Fuentes will also attend the Online News Association conference in Philadelphia and the Society of Professional Journalists convention in Las Vegas, where she will provide FOIA training. And in October, Rhodes will travel to the Military Veterans in Journalism Convention in New York City to offer training on public records and an introduction to investigative reporting.

We attend and train at journalism conferences as budget and staff availability allow, and join forces with partner organizations to present webinars and regional events. But of course, we can’t be everywhere at once.

When we can’t attend events ourselves, we invite our fellow journalism organizations to collaborate with us on panels in their area of expertise at IRE conferences.

At this year’s IRE conference in Orlando, we worked with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to develop several sessions on public records and media law. We also partnered with the National Center on Disability and Journalism to present a session on developing a disability beat. Both organizations helped organize the panels and sent speakers of their own to the conference. We also collaborated with the Global Investigative Journalism Network on a session highlighting the best international investigations of the year.

More partner programming is in the works for AccessFest, our virtual-by-design conference coming up October 12-14, 2023. We’re working with EWA on two sessions covering disparities and inequities in higher education and k-12 schools. Plus, our friends at Factchequeado will present a session in both English and Spanish examining whether non-English speaking communities in the U.S. are more vulnerable to mis- and disinformation than English speakers. See more expected sessions for AccessFest23.

Connections like these make the journalism community stronger than ever, and help all of us better serve our members and the communities they cover. If you are involved with other journalism organizations and have ideas for collaborations or partnerships with IRE, we’d love to hear from you! Drop us a note at info@ire.org or contact Director of Diversity & Inclusion Francisco Vara-Orta directly at francisco@ire.org.

IRE also offers customized in-person and online training for newsrooms. You can decide which skills your staff needs to sharpen, and we will put together a training schedule to help you reach your goals — from building a watchdog culture and effectively using databases to source diversity and inclusive newsroom practices. Learn more about our custom training or submit a request online.