The early bird deadline for 
The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients
By Chava Gourarie, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on July 14, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. The team behind Muckrock, a nonprofit that helps users navigate government records laws, launched a project today that aims to catalog all of the reasons state agencies give for rejecting public records requests. In doing so, they hope…
Read MoreBy Jackie Spinner, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on July 15, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. In the years since officials in Chicago began to demolishthe city’s troubled public housing projects, people in the region have become accustomed to hearing stories about where the former residents of Cabrini-Green, the Robert Taylor…
Read MoreDenise Malan is joining IRE full-time as a member of our training team in August. For the past three years, Denise has worked at the Institute for Nonprofit News in a joint position with IRE. She spent the first two years helping nonprofit news organizations around the country collaborate on data projects, then served as…
Read MorePrisons have long posed a challenge for investigative journalists. And when you’re trying to report on a private prison – one owned by a company, not the government – the situation becomes even more challenging. On this episode, we’re talking to three reporters who managed to pull back the curtain on the for-profit prison system. Shane Bauer describes…
Read MoreTen newsrooms have been chosen for IRE’s Total Newsroom Training this year. TNT provides intense, in-house training for small and medium-sized newsrooms dedicated to watchdog journalism. This is the fourth year IRE has offered the free program. IRE also awarded three TNT Fellowships for IRE’s data analysis boot camp next month. TNT alumni are still encouraged to apply for six…
Read MoreBoost your data skills for just $10 at our hands-on, half-day workshop taking place August 10, before the 26th Annual AAJA National Convention at Caesars Palace Las Vegas. Get experience working with data to help you beat the competition in any market. You’ll come away with plenty of quick-hit story ideas and also learn about…
Read MoreBy Jackie Spinner, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on June 28, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. A pair of investigations that arrived just days apart last week—one from a small nonprofit, the other by a leading daily—brought new scrutiny to the way the city of Chicago handles allegations of police misconduct.…
Read MoreJoin us Monday, July 11 at 6 p.m. for the IRE Bay Area Investigators with Drinks! Invite your friends and get them to RSVP here so we have enough snacks to go around. Share what you learned at the IRE Conference and catch up with colleagues at the tropical-themed Natoma Cabana. The bar is just a…
Read MoreA serial killer. An Afghan teenager in London. A porn star with an immense knowledge of shell corporations. “Gee,” you might say, “is that the cast of the latest Wes Anderson film?” Actually, these characters are all real people, featured in stories by the speakers at the “Longform Investigative Journalism: Stories on Different Platforms” panel at…
Read MoreLearn the rules, then break them. That’s how to excel in the not-so-delicate art of the investigative interview, according to Julian Sher, a producer of the CBC’s The Fifth Estate. Investigative journalists have their strengths: battling with officials for public records, digging through documents, analyzing Excel spreadsheets. But navigating tough interviews? Well, that can be…
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