The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
If you’re in the Cleveland area, we hope you’ll join us for a Meetup on Sunday, Oct. 9. We’ll be gathering at Jukebox starting at 3 pm. This event is open to any member of our industry who has a passion for investigate reporting. Seasoned veteran? Rookie on your first beat? Student journalist trying to break into…
Read More“Out of Balance” from the Indianapolis Star In many ways, the summer of 2016 was an exciting time for USA Gymnastics, the national governing body that oversees the sport and its thousands of athletes. American gymnasts were Olympic darlings. They brought home more medals in their sport than any other country in the world. However,…
Read MoreBy Carlett Spike, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on September 6, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. When Gannett announced in July that investigative-reporting legend Chris Davis would be joining its team, it was a shock to the industry. In recent years, Gannett had claimed an interest in investing in ambitious reporting…
Read MoreStudent debt is quickly becoming a national crisis. But reporting on student loans and college finances has always been thorny, especially when dealing with complicated bureaucracies and patchwork data. Earlier this year, for the first time ever, the Obama Administration released a comprehensive intersection of student population, college performance and “outcome” data, measuring with precise…
Read MoreWhat happens when a state cuts $100 million from its mental health budget? Reporters from the Tampa Bay Times and Sarasota Herald-Tribune spent 18 months finding out. Their Pulitzer-winning investigation exposed deadly violence in Florida’s mental hospitals, where staff shortages, regulatory fumbling and years of neglect were, for years, hidden from the public eye. In…
Read MoreBy Jackie Spinner, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on August 16, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. This summer, the Illinois Legislature stiffened the penalties that can be imposed on public bodies that refuse to comply with the state’s Freedom of Information Act. HB 4715, part of a two-bill package known as “Molly’s…
Read MoreBy Deron Lee, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on August 15, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. Not long after taking over as editor of the Des Moines Register in 2014, Amalie Nash told CJR that she was determined to uphold the paper’s “longstanding tradition of standing up for public records.” So now, as she prepares…
Read MoreWe’re already gearing up for the 2017 CAR Conference in Jacksonville, Florida, and we want your input. What panels do you want to attend? What tools do you want to demo? What hands-on skills are you looking to learn, or to teach? Whether you’d like to be a speaker or not, please let us know…
Read MoreBy Jonathan Peters, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on August 2, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. Michigan’s primary elections, taking place today, may offer few competitive races. But one of them has offered a look at an unusual type of legal action—one in which a government entity sues a local media outlet in response…
Read MoreA team of journalists at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution uncovered a nationwide phenomenon of sexual abuse in the medical community. Thousands of doctors, many still practicing, had a lurid history of sexual misconduct, their crimes hidden from the public. On this episode, we’re talking to reporter Carrie Teegardin and illustrator Richard Watkins about how they found…
Read More