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(Dec. 11, 2024) — This holiday season, consider giving the gift of IRE membership to the journalist(s) in your life.
Whether it’s for a friend, a family member, a colleague, an intern or a student, the gift of IRE membership tells your favorite journo that you believe in them and support their growth.
We make it easy for you to purchase a one-year professional ($50-$75) or student membership ($25). If they’re already a member, the gift will renew their membership for a year. Fill out this form to gift a membership.
Here are the top five reasons IRE membership is a fantastic gift.
IRE membership is a gift that keeps giving all year round. The best journalists in the world teach at members-only conferences, webinars and bootcamps. But that’s just the beginning. Members also get free access to thousands of tipsheets, tools like Tableau and Cometdocs, exclusive listservs, a subscription to the IRE Journal and other perks.
We know that “investigative journalists” are not the only ones doing investigative reporting. Our trainings and resources share lessons that all journalists can use – no matter their title, experience level or beat. All journalists are welcome.
IRE helps reporters and editors of all ages to develop core skills, advancing careers with support from our community of journalists. We provide training, networking and mentorship opportunities that change the lives and careers of our members.
In a time of disinformation and distrust in the media, society needs high-quality investigative journalism. Our democracy depends on it. Your gift of IRE membership can help a journalist improve their skills – which directly benefits the public informed by their journalism work.
For nearly 50 years, IRE has been providing journalists with the tools, training and resources they need to excel in their careers. If you’re a member, you’ve seen the impact of our work firsthand. By giving a membership, you help IRE make a difference in someone’s life, the way it did for you.
This is especially valuable for students who are close to finishing a degree – if they’re an IRE member when they graduate, they can continue renewing their membership at the discounted student rate for three years. Those are pivotal years, both professionally and financially, so having all the benefits of IRE during that time makes an enormous impact.
It’s tough out there. We all know someone who has been laid off, furloughed or had to accept a job without the right pay or benefits. The gift of IRE membership enables them to continue developing their skills, and may even reinvigorate their commitment to stay in journalism and fight the good fight.
Don’t have a specific person in mind? Donate to our Support a Journalist fund to help folks who have been unable to join or renew their IRE memberships due to layoffs, furloughs or job terminations. Please put “Support a Journalist” in the line where it asks you to specify a fund.
If you manage a team, don’t get stuck at the last minute buying gift cards for everyone. Giving your team the gift of IRE membership is thoughtful and useful. It’s not only an investment in their professional development, but also in the quality of work they’ll be able to produce in the coming years.
(Dec. 10, 2024) – Applications are now open for Total Newsroom Training, a grant-funded IRE program that brings customized investigative training to small- and medium-sized newsrooms.
IRE’s experienced trainers visit selected U.S.-based newsrooms either virtually or in person for two days of intense, in-house investigative training – at no cost. Now in its 12th year, the program has trained more than 100 newsrooms across the U.S.!
Spots in the program are limited and awarded on a competitive basis. Preference will be given to newsrooms in rural areas and smaller cities, smaller newsrooms in large markets, and newsrooms founded and run by those coming from and serving historically marginalized communities.
The newsroom must be committed to allowing a significant portion of its staff to attend the full two days of training and to tracking their progress after the training. Training must be completed by December 2025.
The deadline to apply is Feb. 2, 2025. Learn more about the program and apply here.
Total Newsroom Training is designed to increase the ability of news organizations to provide watchdog and enterprise coverage for their communities and to produce work that can lead to change and improvements. IRE customizes training based on the needs of the organization, which may include web tools, background techniques and hands-on data analysis training. For questions, email IRE trainer Adam Rhodes, adam@ire.org.
(Dec. 9, 2024) — With the new year approaching and a new presidential administration coming into place, we asked the IRE training team for their best advice to journalists. These IRE trainers teach journalists and work with partner journalism organizations all over the country, so they have a strong pulse on the industry. Here’s what they shared:
"As we continue to live through unprecedented times, it’s always good to reacquaint ourselves as journalists with our code of ethics and seek community among our colleagues to gut-check what is set to be a challenging year of fact-checking and adding context to what elected officials say. We can’t be scared to tell the truth because of accusations of partisanship and that’s where digging into data, facts and backgrounding will be crucial." — Francisco Vara-Orta, Director of Diversity and Inclusion
"Lean on your fellow journalists—for mentorship, advice, solidarity, and support—when you need. Our work is stronger when we collaborate instead of compete. The next few years are going to be a challenging landscape for journalists across the country, and our work is going to be more important than ever." — Adam Rhodes, Training Director
"For me, 2025 will be the year of following the money, which goes hand in hand with the most crucial aspect of our craft: holding people in power accountable for their actions. I would add that we need to be more transparent with our working methods and never forget that the purpose of our job is to make our communities stronger and more sustainable." — Laura Moscoso, Training Director
"Accessing public records is likely going to get tougher, so it will be more important than ever to make friends with the record keepers. You know lots of people are going to be in a bad mood; you be the smiling one they like to see coming in the door. Stop by when you don’t need anything. Take some doughnuts or fill the candy dish every now and then. It may seem the world is going to heck in a handbasket but you don’t have to go with it!" — Diana R. Fuentes, Executive Director
"However you're stretching your skills in 2025, whether it's studying up on FOIA strategies or taking a data workshop from our talented colleagues on IRE's training team, don't be intimidated! Your pals in the IRE & NICAR community are here to support as you grow, wherever you're at on your journey." — Cody Winchester, Director of Technology and Online Resources
About IRE: Investigative Reporters & Editors is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting. IRE provides training, resources and a community of support to thousands of journalists around the world. Membership is open to journalists, students and educators everywhere. Learn more about the organization and join us here.
(Dec. 4, 2024) — IRE is now accepting applications for the NICAR25 mentorship program!
Our annual data journalism conference is taking place March 6-9, 2025 in Minneapolis. If you're joining us for the conference and are hoping to get (or give) one-on-one guidance, you can sign up for the mentorship program by filling out this form.
IRE will match mentors with mentees and arrange for them to meet at a breakfast during the conference. The NICAR25 mentorship breakfast will be on Friday, March 7, from 7:30 to 8:45 a.m.
This is a popular program and space is limited, so be sure to apply now! The deadline to apply is Friday, Feb. 7. If the slots are filled before then, your application will be added to a waitlist. Please also note that you must register for the conference by Monday, Feb. 10, to participate.
(Dec. 3, 2024) — It’s time to gather your best stories of the year! The 2024 IRE Awards contest is now open for submissions, and we can’t wait to see what you’ve done. You may submit entries here.
Among the most prestigious in journalism, the IRE Awards recognize outstanding investigative reporting across all media, including print, TV, radio, student work and several special categories (including longform journalism in audio and video).
Eligible entries must have been published or aired between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2024. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 15, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.
For details on how to enter, go here.
Examples of past winners from 2023, 2022 and prior contests are available on the IRE website.
(Dec. 3, 2024) — Next year, Investigative Reporters & Editors will celebrate 50 years of supporting the investigative journalism community. As part of the anniversary celebrations, we will be highlighting members who have made a special impact on journalism, IRE and the world. We’re asking for your nominations of who we should celebrate at our gala that we are planning for the fall in New York City.
In recognition of the incredible legacy of the organization, we are seeking to honor journalists from each decade of our history who will represent our larger community. We are looking for journalists from all types of news outlets, all mediums and newsroom sizes. And we are looking for members who have produced powerful work and also served our beloved nonprofit.
Nominations will be accepted from the IRE membership until Jan. 1, 2025. A subcommittee of the 50th Anniversary Task Force will choose the honorees, with final approval from the IRE Board of Directors.
To submit a nomination, please send an email to president@ire.org by Jan. 1, 2025, with the following information:
To sign up for more information about IRE’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, please fill out this Google Form.
If you would like to donate to honor IRE’s 50th Anniversary, please go to ire.org/donate and specify that your donation is for the anniversary.
(Nov. 21, 2024) — In February 1975, a group of journalists from across the country gathered in Reston, Virginia to discuss the future of investigative journalism.
It was an unprecedented year. Just months before, President Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign after the Watergate Scandal. U.S. forces had recently left Vietnam, and the 30-year conflict was approaching its end. To navigate this moment of national chaos and political uncertainty, NBC was brewing up a new show called “Saturday Night” to premiere that fall.
Unprecedented times. Sound familiar?
During this time, “investigative reporting exploded in the United States,” Leonard Downie Jr., one of the editors on the Watergate stories, describes in a 2015 edition of The IRE Journal. But newsrooms did not have much investigative experience.
So, a group of investigative reporters and editors gathered to form an organization that could embody their mission and empower journalists to share story ideas, newsgathering techniques and best practices. They represented news outlets across the country, including the Chicago Tribune, The Indianapolis Star, Ohio State University, The New York Times, Newhouse News and The Washington Post.
That gathering is where investigative reporters and editors became “Investigative Reporters & Editors.” Les Whitten, a Washington, D.C. columnist at the meeting, asserted that what most characterizes the investigative reporter is “ire” or “a sense of outrage,” so it was decided that the acronym IRE fit such an association.
The founding of IRE ushered in a new era in investigative journalism.
“IRE grew far beyond the ambitions of its founders … and through its training, resources and mutual support, played a major, continuing role in the expansion and impact of investigative reporting in the United States and elsewhere,” Downie Jr., an IRE founder, previously wrote.
Since 1976, IRE has hosted the flagship IRE Conference in different cities every year (and a couple online during another unprecedented time), allowing hundreds of journalists to connect, commiserate and share their collected wisdom.
In 1989, inspired by the work of pioneering journalist and “Precision Journalism” author Philip Meyer, IRE began training in data journalism through the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR). Since then, NICAR has helped hundreds of journalists harness the power of data using the latest technology and software.
In addition to offering this programming, IRE has made conscious efforts over the years to ensure our training reaches more people, and helps bring new voices and perspectives to the field.
And as times have changed, we’ve adapted to better serve our membership. Since 2020, we’ve dramatically increased our virtual programming to make IRE training more accessible and affordable. This year alone, IRE hosted about 30 free webinars — more than any other journalism association — as well as our virtual-by-design conference, AccessFest.
This type of training and mentorship equips journalists to pursue investigations that expose injustice, bring about change and hold power to account. Over the last 50 years, IRE members have been dogged and fearless in their pursuit of the truth, from investigating influence and ethics at the Supreme Court to exposing sex abuse at USA Gymnastics and so many other countless stories over the years. For further proof and inspiration, just take a look at all the past winners and finalists of the IRE Awards.
Along with celebrating our wins, IRE members have also stood together in tough times, even when faced with the darker, and outright dangerous, side of this profession, starting with The Arizona Project in 1976 to The Chauncey Bailey Project in 2007, when journalists were killed in retaliation for their reporting. In 2023, IRE hosted a workshop and started a fund in honor of Jeff German, a longtime Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter who was killed by the subject of his reporting.
As we reflect on these historic events and our upcoming 50th anniversary, IRE remains steadfast in this core belief: Investigative journalism is essential to a free, democratic society.
This is our foundation. This is our story. Will you help us write the next chapter?
Our organization relies on the support of generous benefactors and a steady stream of donations. If you would like to see us continue our mission and expand the work of investigative journalists around the world, please consider donating to our end-of-year giving campaign.
The future of our organization, and investigative journalism, depends on your support.
Make a Donation: Help us reach our end-of-year goal of $50,000. You can donate online, via text or by mail. Any amount helps!
Double Your Donation: Check if your employer offers matching gifts to amplify your support.
Start a Facebook Fundraiser: Rally your network by hosting a Facebook fundraiser for Giving Tuesday. It’s an easy and impactful way to spread the word.
Get involved: Become a member or encourage someone to join! Memberships range from $25-75/year. You can also give a gift membership to a family member, friend or colleague.
Learn about the IRE Legacy Society: Leave a lasting impact by supporting IRE’s future through planned giving.
Spread the Word: Give us a shoutout on social media! Use #SupportIRE to share why you support IRE and help others discover our work. You can find us @IRE_NICAR on most platforms.
Although there has been a move to diversify journalism from the stories we tell to the people we interview, the sad reality is that not enough journalists prioritize disability coverage.
As part of IRE’s virtual AccessFest conference in 2024, a group of distinguished disabled journalists discussed how to cover topics like climate change, mass incarceration, and poverty through the lens of disability.
In a panel titled, “Disability is part of every beat,” three accomplished journalists joined in discussion. We have excerpted from their panel in this edition of The IRE Radio Podcast.
The panelists are Jen Deerinwater, founding executive director of Crushing Colonialism; Lygia Navarro, award-winning disabled freelance journalist and editor for NAHJ’s multimedia platform, palabra; and Cara Reedy, former CNN documentarian and founder and director of the Disabled Journalists Association.
IRE Radio is distributed across several podcast platforms, including Apple, Spotify and Amazon Podcasts. A full text transcript of the episode is available when accessed through the Apple Podcasts mobile app. Please contact editorial@ire.org if you need any assistance.
Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter reported and hosted the episodes. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
As one of IRE’s signature training programs, Data Journalism Bootcamp empowers newsrooms to pursue hard-hitting, data-driven stories.
We call it “bootcamp” because the training is intense – but don’t let that scare you! Each year, journalists across different beats and media walk away from the weeklong workshop more confident and eager to work with numbers and data.
In 2025, IRE will host three separate bootcamps at the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri: Google Sheets Deep Dive (January 13-17), Google Sheets Deep Dive (March 24-28) and Advanced Data Journalism Bootcamp in R (August 4-8).
Fellowships are available to help TV journalists, radio journalists, journalists of color, educators of color, journalists serving rural communities, and journalism educators who teach data journalism and investigative reporting.
Please note, IRE uses a common application for most, but not all, fellowships. Learn more and apply using the links below.
TV and/or radio journalists are eligible for this fellowship, which provides assistance to attend an IRE Data Journalism Bootcamp. Fellows receive a one-year IRE membership/renewal (up to $75 value), complimentary bootcamp registration (up to $1,250 value) and a travel stipend (up to $750).
Deadline (for January Bootcamp): Nov. 18, 2024
Deadline (for March Bootcamp): Jan. 6, 2025
Apply here. (This fellowship uses the IRE Common App)
Journalists and educators of color are eligible for this fellowship, which provides assistance to attend an IRE Data Journalism Bootcamp. Students are not eligible. Fellows receive a one-year IRE membership/renewal (up to $75 value), complimentary bootcamp registration (up to $1,250 value) and a travel stipend (up to $1,000).
Deadline (for January Bootcamp): Nov. 18, 2024
Deadline (for March Bootcamp): Jan. 6, 2025
Apply here. (This fellowship uses the IRE Common App).
This fellowship is designed to help journalists serving rural communities attend an IRE Data Journalism Bootcamp. Fellows receive a one-year IRE membership/renewal (up to $75 value), complimentary bootcamp registration (up to $1,250 value) and a travel stipend (up to $500).
This application is open to:
U.S.-based professional journalists working for:
Freelance journalists who have:
Deadline (for January Bootcamp): Nov. 18, 2024
Deadline (for March Bootcamp): Jan. 6, 2025
Deadline (for August Bootcamp): May 6, 2025
This fellowship is designed to support journalism educators who teach data journalism and investigative reporting. Fellows have the choice of attending an IRE Data Journalism Bootcamp OR the NICAR Conference, which will take place in Minneapolis March 6-9. 2025.
The fellowship includes a one-year IRE membership/renewal (up to $75 value), complimentary event registration (up to $800 value) and a travel stipend (up to $500). If attending the NICAR Conference, the fellowship will include four hotel nights.
Deadline: Jan. 6, 2025
Apply here. (This fellowship uses the IRE Common App).
Please note, eligibility for IRE fellowships /scholarships renews every three years. For example, if you receive a fellowship in 2025, you will be eligible again in 2028. If you have questions or need more information, please contact IRE’s Director of Partnerships Anna López.
IRE is thrilled to announce the hiring of Laura Jael Kurtzberg as the team’s newest training director.
Kurtzberg, an Arizona native, has been an assistant professor at Florida International University since 2020.
She has extensive experience as a data visualization specialist, cartographer and a news applications developer with a particular interest in environmental stories.
“We are very pleased to have someone of Laura's expertise and sensitivity joining the IRE staff," IRE Executive Director Diana R. Fuentes said. "Her ability to turn complex subjects into appealing, easier-to-understand lessons will greatly benefit our members, and her friendly, collaborative approach makes her a natural fit for our team. Laura shares our passion for training at all levels, and for seeking new ways to help journalists better cover the diverse communities they serve.”
Among her many accomplishments, Kurtzberg worked with scientist and consultant Cecilia Leal to build the first index of impact on freshwater for the Amazon basin for the award-winning Aquazônia project. She helped design and create maps for the project and also produced the interactive web platform for the Aquazônia story, using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Mapbox GL JS and Grav CMS.
In addition to Aquazônia, Kurtzberg has worked at the intersection of data journalism and design with organizations such as InfoAmazonia, Ambiental Media, WLRN Public Media, and Mongabay.
With experience in data analysis and programming with JavaScript, R and Python, she brings a critical range of skills to the IRE training team.
"I'm so excited to be joining the dynamic IRE training team,” Kurtzberg said. “I am passionate about the power of data and technology to help journalists publish innovative and groundbreaking stories."
Kurtzberg earned her MFA in Interactive Media from the University of Miami and her BA in Information Science from the University of Arizona. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
In her free time, Kurtzberg enjoys reading fiction, trying to learn how to play the lever harp and crocheting chunky sweaters!
She will officially join IRE in mid-December, after the fall semester ends at Florida International.
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