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IRE selects 8 newsrooms for latest Total Newsroom Training cohort

Eight newsrooms will receive custom, grant-funded watchdog training in the coming year through IRE’s Total Newsroom Training program.

Total Newsroom Training provides two days of intensive, personalized training for small and medium-sized newsrooms dedicated to watchdog journalism. This is the 11th year Investigative Reporters and Editors has offered the program, and will reach the milestone of 100 newsrooms trained under TNT in 2024.

"The fundamental mission of IRE is to provide the best in data analysis and investigative journalism training, providing a thriving network of like-minded journalists for year round collaboration to help improve the quality of our industry," said IRE Executive Director Diana R. Fuentes. "TNT helps us accomplish our mission. The graduates of TNT workshops have gone on to produce stories that have changed laws and changed lives in the communities they serve. It is democracy in action, and we are proud to be a part of that."

TNT newsroom training is based on the specific needs of each individual newsroom and includes sessions ranging from how to successfully handle public records battles to hands-on learning of spreadsheets and programming to topic-focused training such as best practices in covering education, law enforcement and underrepresented communities.

This year’s newsrooms were chosen from a record number of applicants.

The selected newsrooms have a wide range of specialities and talents, ranging from bilingual coverage of Bay Area immigrant communities, to national LGBTQ+ issues, climate change and more.

Congratulations to the winning newsrooms:

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

Over the course of 2023, IRE fellows Halima Gikandi, Leslie Rangel and Kaylee Tornay worked hard and dug deep to share important, investigative reporting with their communities.

They asked questions about abuse allegations, spoke to experts about mental health and analyzed data on child care. We’re proud to share their investigations, part of the Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship program.

Halima Gikandi

Halima Gikandi, of The World, found several allegations of abuse, neglect and misconduct at two Uganda orphanages. Listen to her multi-part series "No place to call home":

“Halima is relentless, tenacious and she reaches for big stories,” Andrew Lehren, Gikandi’s IRE mentor, shared on LinkedIn.

Leslie Rangel

Leslie Rangel, of KTBC’s Good Day Austin, highlighted the mental health crisis for kids in Texas, which ranks last in the nation for access to mental healthcare. Watch “Admitted,” her multi-part series: Texas mental health crisis: Parents and professionals say the state is failing children

“I wanted to be a journalist… to make sure that stories were being told of people who look like me, people who look different and have different lived experiences. And to really just bring more accountability and justice to everyone’s story,” Rangel told us at IRE23 in Orlando.

Kaylee Tornay

Kaylee Tornay, of InvestigateWest, reported on lack of child care supply in Oregon. Several counties are considered “severe” child care deserts for infants and toddlers, despite tens of millions dollars of investments. Read her story: Badly Needed Infant And Toddler Care Investments Aren’t Reaching Oregon’s North Coast

“It feels really rewarding to work this long on understanding such a complicated topic, and I’m happy with the result,” Tornay told IRE after her project was completed in November. “And there’s more to come!”

The Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship is intended to prepare and support a journalist of color for a solid career in investigative reporting. Fellows attended IRE conferences, trained at data bootcamps and received mentoring to work on their projects. Learn more about the fellowship here.

Starting this spring, IRE professional members will get free access to FOIAengine, a database for researching FOIA requests. The tool, created last year by PoliScio Analytics, contains more than 170,000 FOIA request records 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.

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.”

The PoliScio team is exhibiting at the NICAR Conference in Baltimore this week, offering demonstrations of FOIAengine. You can also see examples of stories that came from FOIAengine research on the PoliScio website and Law Street Media.

Free access to FOIAengine will be available only to professional members of IRE. Details on how to request an account will be coming soon.

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

(March 6, 2024) COLUMBIA, Missouri — Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), the largest professional journalism association in the United States, is launching a new initiative to mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of its founding.

The nonprofit organization, which will reach the milestone in 2025, has created a special task force to plan events to celebrate the occasion.

“Since 1975, IRE has played a crucial role in fostering investigative journalism that has informed the public, held leaders accountable and ultimately made the world better,” said IRE President Brian M. Rosenthal, an investigative reporter at The New York Times. “Now it is time to honor that storied history – and lay a foundation for our next 50 years, and beyond.”

IRE began as a collaborative effort to encourage high-quality investigative reporting during a hotly competitive time in the industry in the wake of the resignation of President Richard Nixon. The founders chose the name IRE in part because they thought it was fitting for a group of impassioned investigators.

The fledgling organization solidified after one of its early members, Don Bolles of the Arizona Republic, was murdered in 1976 while reporting on an investigation and other members banded together from across the country to finish his work.

The new task force will be co-chaired by former IRE President David Boardman, dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University, and Tisha Thompson, an investigative reporter at ESPN and longtime IRE leader.

“This is an opportunity to celebrate the profound impact of IRE in its first five decades, and to build a foundation for the next five decades,” Boardman said. “I’m excited and honored to be a part of this.”

“I credit IRE/NICAR and its membership for so much of my professional success,” Thompson said. “I am honored to work with David and the other incredible journalists on this task force to celebrate IRE’s history, its bright future, and a remarkable fellowship of journalists helping journalists.”

The task force includes 15 other distinguished reporters and editors from all corners of the industry, a diverse list of some of the world’s top journalists. Their bios are below.

IRE is looking for additional volunteers to support this effort. Boardman and Thompson are planning to create subcommittees to work on various aspects of the initiative. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact president@ire.org

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.  

Investigative Reporters and Editors is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It has nearly 5,000 members, making it the largest professional journalism organization in the U.S.

Members of the IRE 50th Anniversary Task Force:

David Boardman, a co-chair of the Task Force, is the dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University. Previously he was the executive editor of The Seattle Times. He served on the IRE Board of Directors between 1997 and 2007, including two terms as the IRE President.

Tisha Thompson, a co-chair of the Task Force, is an investigative reporter at ESPN. Previously she was an investigative reporter at several local television stations in the Washington, D.C., area. She attended her first IRE Conference as a high schooler in 1993 and has played a leadership role in the organization since the early 2000s.

Helena Bengtsson is data journalism editor at Gota Media, a publishing company with 13 titles in Sweden. Previously she worked at Sweden’s national television broadcaster and served as editor of data projects at The Guardian in the U.K. She has frequently helped with organizing NICAR, the annual data journalism conference run by IRE.

Ashley Brown is a senior editor at All Things Considered at NPR. Previously she worked as a producer at ABC News on This Week and in local television news. She was an IRE Philip L. Graham Fellowship recipient in 2013.

Len Downie is a professor at the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State University. Previously he worked for 44 years at the Washington Post, including 17 years as the executive editor. He is a co-founder of IRE and one of the original nine members of the Board of Directors. He also served on the Board between 2009 and 2015. 

Cindy Galli is the Executive Producer of the Investigative Unit at ABC News. Previously she was on the investigative team at Inside Edition and ABC’s local station in San Francisco. She has served on the IRE Board of Directors since 2019, including a stint as the IRE Vice President.

Manny Garcia is the executive editor of the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA Today Network at Gannett. Previously he ran newspapers in Florida. He served on the IRE Board of Directors from 2006 to 2014, including a stint as the IRE President.

Rick Gevers is the owner of Rick Gevers & Associates, which represents many broadcast journalists across the United States. Previously he worked as a local television news director. He has served on the IRE Board of Directors since 2023.

Dianna Hunt is national editor at Indian Country Today, a daily digital news platform that covers the Indigenous world. Previously she was an editor at newspapers in Texas. She served on the IRE Board of Directors between 2003 and 2008.

Ron Nixon is the vice president for investigations, enterprise, partnerships and grants at the Associated Press. Previously he was a reporter at The New York Times. He worked on the IRE Staff as a training director from 2000 to 2003.

Brian M. Rosenthal is an investigative reporter at The New York Times. Previously he worked as a local reporter in Texas and Washington State. He has served on the IRE Board of Directors since 2019, and he is currently the IRE President.

Jim Steele is a retired investigative journalist and author who wrote many iconic stories while at The Philadelphia Inquirer, Time and Vanity Fair. He is one of four people ever to win the IRE Founder’s Award for his contributions to the organization and the industry.

Lea Thompson is a retired investigative journalist who worked for 14 years as the chief consumer correspondent at NBC News. She served on the IRE Board of Directors between 2006 and 2013, including a stint as the IRE Treasurer.

Sisi Wei is the editor-in-chief of The Markup, a nonprofit news publication focused on the impact of technology on society. Previously she worked as a news app developer and editor at ProPublica. She served on the IRE Governance Committee.

Christine Willmsen is the managing editor for investigations at WBUR, the public radio station in Boston. Previously she was an investigative reporter at The Seattle Times and a Nieman Fellow. She is a frequent speaker at IRE conferences and other events.

Rick Yarborough is senior producer at WRC-TV, the NBC station in Washington, D.C. He previously worked at several other local television stations in D.C. and the Carolinas. He is a frequent speaker at IRE conferences and other events.

Lee Zurik is the chief investigative reporter at Fox 8 New Orleans and the vice president of investigations at Gray TV. He previously worked at several stations across the South. He served on the IRE Board of Directors between 2016 and 2020, including a stint as the IRE Vice President.

The 2024 NICAR Conference is just around the corner. This year, members are heading to Charm City. IRE’s annual data journalism conference will host amazing sessions March 7-10. But what is there to do outside of conference sessions and networking in Baltimore? 

Thanks to NICAR24 Regional Committee members Tisha Thompson, Mallory Sofastaii and Kimi Yoshino, we’ve got you covered! Thompson is an investigative reporter with ESPN. Sofastaii is a consumer investigative reporter at WMAR-2 in Baltimore. Yoshino is editor-in-chief of The Baltimore Banner

Need a bite to eat? These options are just a walk away!

Willing to grab a bite a little farther away? Thompson recommends The PaperMoon Diner to visit if you want to get a “John Waters” vibe. This eclectic restaurant serves a plethora of menu options, including a vegan selection. 

Yoshino suggests folks keen to eat outside of the immediate conference vicinity to visit Clavel: A James Beard-nominated Mexican restaurant with a great selection of mezcal; however, they don't take reservations. But there are two amazing bars that you can drink at while waiting — Fadensonnen (natural wine bar) and W.C. Harlan (speakeasy type and right across the street from Clavel).

For those coming or going by train, the James Beard-nominated Alma Cocina Latina serves Venezuelan food near the train station with excellent plating and flavors. 

What about nightlife? These are just a quick walk.

Or do you want to get away from the conference venue after sessions wrap? For folks willing to travel farther, Sofastaii suggests an excursion to TopGolf, Horseshoe Casino or the neighborhood of Federal Hill to do the trick. 

So now you’ve got a bite and a drink. What about sightseeing?

Consider also these additional local tips for running and sightseeing, on-screen pop culture and — last but not least — the iconic Mr. Trash Wheel. Read on for more details:

Routes on foot and by water

Cinema and film 

And there’s plenty for television and cinema aficionados. Fans of Baltimore native John Waters can seek out odd spots to enjoy around town. Fans of “The Wire” (set and produced in Baltimore) will also have plenty to discover while touring the area. Likewise, Yoshino says fans of “Homicide: Life on the Street” have added reason to drop by Kooper’s Tavern (noted in the regional committee’s local food suggestions) — it’s across the street from the Pendry Hotel (the site of the Baltimore Police Department in the show) and the bar has the old Homicide white board, used to keep track of solved and unsolved homicides. “Of course, when I went in for a drink and to see the board, nobody that worked there had ever seen the show or knew what I was talking about!”

Mr. Trash Wheel

Finally, worth noting to NICAR attendees, the conference venue is located next to one of Baltimore’s most iconic landmarks – Mr. Trash Wheel. According to the website for the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, “Mr. Trash Wheel is a social media celebrity, Baltimore landmark, and part of the semi-autonomous trash interceptor family in the Baltimore Harbor and surrounding waters.” And because we love data at NICAR, you can enjoy a decade’s worth of Mr. Trash Wheel data here.

IRE is proud to partner with Sunshine Week this year. 

National Sunshine Week, celebrated annually in mid-March, is a public awareness campaign to shine a light on the importance of public records and open government. It’s a reminder to journalists and citizens alike — we have a right to know what’s going on in government!

“It’s a cause everyone can support,” David Cuillier, director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project, wrote in The IRE Journal this month. 

“As Stanford’s James Hamilton calculated in his ‘Democracy’s Detectives’ book, for every dollar spent on records-based investigative reporting, society reaps $287 in benefits. That is a phenomenal return on investment.”

David Cuillier, "Bright tips for public support, Sunshine Week" (The IRE Journal, Q1 2024)

This year Sunshine Week runs March 10-16, with awareness and training events hosted by organizations in journalism, education, government and other sectors. 

Cuillier shared ideas to celebrate Sunshine Week in his FOI Files column in the latest IRE Journal:

You can also attend IRE’s Sunshine Week webinar “25 records to request now” on Thursday, March 14. IRE executive director Diana Fuentes will walk you through a slew of interesting and informative public records in this hour-long session!

And if you’re looking for guidance on public records on a specific beat, read our other FOI Files columns in previous editions of The IRE Journal (IRE members have access to The IRE Journal for free, but nonmembers can also purchase digital versions of these editions):

For more ideas, resources and events, visit sunshineweek.org.

The results are in! Here's the lineup for Lightning Talks at the NICAR24 conference in Baltimore next week, in speaking order:

1. Your own worst enemy: How to organize your work so your future self won't hate you | Justin Myers, Chicago Sun-Times

You might have been here before: trying to pick apart some old analysis or script, wondering in anger what kind of jerk designed it this way — only to realize that jerk was you. I've been in that situation, too, and over the years I've found some ways to be kinder to the ever-present coworker known as My Future Self. I'd like to share some of them.

2. Visuals are data, too! | Brenna Smith, The Baltimore Banner

Too often, visuals are afterthoughts in stories. However, the emergence of visual forensics as a storytelling technique has changed that narrative, putting visuals front and center as key investigative findings. In this Lighting Talks session, Baltimore Banner reporter and former New York Times Visual Investigations fellow Brenna Smith will walk you through how to take an analytical approach to visuals, proving that newsrooms across the country can produce "visual investigations" without a New York Times budget.

3. Datasette Enrichments: Run bulk operations to enrich your data | Simon Willison, Datasette

Datasette Enrichments is a new tool that lets you take a table full of data and "enrich" it in various ways — run geocoders to populate latitudes and longitudes, clean up data with regular expressions and, most excitingly, pipe that data through GPT-4 (or GPT-4 Vision) with a prompt to extract or transform data. I'll demonstrate the feature in action and show how you can use it to process thousands of rows of data in all sorts of interesting ways.

4. Wait…who funds you? Finding out (on deadline) | Kyle Spencer, Reporting Right

Bad faith organizations with anti-democratic aims abound. But sometimes — and that’s by design —they can be hard to identify, which means you may be validating and/or legitimizing a group with radical goals (accidentally). How do you tell your readers who is behind the groups you quote, mention or allude to? This Lightning Talks session will give reporters and editors an easy 5-step process for figuring out what a group/nonprofit/think tank etc. really stands for — and who funds it. On deadline!

5. When charts lie | Todd Wallack, WBUR Boston 

Graphics are an essential tool for data journalists. But it's also easy to mislead readers — either by mistake or on purpose. I'll highlight some common ways charts can trick the eye.

6. Expand your sourcing horizon | Jui Sarwate, CBS News and Stations

Learn about the different ways you can reach a variety of sources using X (Twitter) lists, connecting to sources through non-profits and by just cold emailing/calling by the bucket-loads. 

7. How to take PDFs from strangers | David Huerta, Freedom of the Press Foundation

I'll be demonstrating the use of Dangerzone, a new tool actively developed by Freedom of the Press Foundation. Dangerzone allows journalists to create a malware-free copy of PDFs that may otherwise contain malicious code.

8. Follow the commodity then follow money: uncovering stories through commodity and supply chain data | Christopher Lambin, Global Witness

There is an array of data that can help investigators map the flow of physical commodities around the globe, including freight tracking, customs records, and satellite imagery. This presentation will explore how we can combine these sources to examine supply chains while investigating environmental harms, human rights abuses and sanctions evasion.

9. How to solve a murder while watching the World Cup | Catherine Rentz, independent journalist

I started building this database during the Women's World Cup (soccer!). It looked at what bad guys did as the evidence implicating them in violent crimes lay untested for decades. The results were frustrating: wrongful incarcerations and preventable violent crimes. Many jurisdictions have collections of cold case evidence like this that have remained "off the books" and untested for decades. Before long, I came across something shocking that led to a break in a 1983 unsolved murder of a college student in Baltimore County.

10. Do you know who runs your elections? | Michael Beckel, Issue One

There are more than 10,000 chief local election officials across the country. Monitoring them all would be a Herculean effort. Monitoring those is a key state or region is feasible — and necessary in understanding election administration challenges in 2024. Issue One's blockbuster analysis of Western states found that 40% of counties in the West have new chief local election officials since 2020 — and that the officials who left these positions took with them more than 1,800 years of combined experience. There is no better time than now to start getting to know your local election officials in your area!

Lightning Talks, a series of 5-minute talks at NICAR selected by the community, has become one of the most popular sessions at the conference. This year, you can attend the big event on Friday, March 8, from 5 - 6:15 p.m. in the Harbor Ballroom. 

After Lightning Talks, please stick around to remember Philip Meyer's legacy and help us congratulate the 2023 Philip Meyer Journalism Award winners.

Like many reporters across the U.S., Votebeat Texas reporter Natalia Contreras has been preparing for the 2024 elections since last year.

It’s a momentous election year, to say the least. In Texas specifically, lawmakers filed hundreds of election-related laws during the legislative session. Some states enacted major changes in 2023: New York gave all voters the option to vote by mail; Michigan expanded the list of acceptable photo IDs; Mississippi made it a crime, in many instances, to help another voter return a mail ballot.

In fact, the entire nation saw “an unprecedented volume of state legislation changing the rules governing voting,” according to The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. 

It’s a topic that’s been trending up since the 2020 presidential election.

“We've been thinking about this year for about a year already,” Contreras said. “Because new laws, especially in Texas, just really are impacting the election and whether election officials are going to have the resources to pull off the election — and how that's going to impact voters ultimately.”

There are a lot of moving parts to keep track of, presenting challenges for newer and veteran reporters alike. IRE recognizes the importance of accurate and responsible coverage, and we want to be a resource for journalists during this challenging time. 

“I really just want to make sure that the entire membership, or as many members as possible, are equipped with the skills they need to do quality elections coverage,” Adam Rhodes, IRE training director said. “It's probably one of the most important elections that a lot of us have seen, and I can't think of a more important time for there to be a robust and well-equipped press to cover elections.” 

We asked three experts for their insight on covering the 2024 elections. Here’s some advice from Natalia Contreras of Votebeat Texas, Anna Massoglia of OpenSecrets and Derek Willis of the University of Maryland:

1. Go back to basics with fact-checking

“Making sure that you're relying on information that is vetted is a really important aspect of it, just having that kind of media literacy. I always check two sources when I'm doing something if it's not a primary source, and even sometimes when it is, because there's just so much misinformation and disinformation swirling around on the internet. ... That's part of journalism is asking questions, questioning the legitimacy of things – but make sure you're doing that even when something appears to be very basic.” — Anna Massoglia, OpenSecrets

2. See the bigger picture in campaign finance data

“Resist the temptation to frame this campaign as a repeat of earlier campaigns. It is easier for us as journalists to understand things if they've happened before. We have some context for it … and campaigns are alike in many ways. But when you do that with campaign finance data, in particular, what happens is that you tend to look for the same kinds of stories that you did two years ago or four years ago. 

And what I would encourage folks to do is to not be restricted to that, not be bound by that context, but to actually look for new ways, new stories, new behaviors in the data that would tell readers something interesting and novel about what's going on.” — Derek Willis, Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland

3. Build relationships with election officials 

“It just comes down to building relationships with people that run the elections in the town or the state. … Also for the primary election, it’s super important to build relationships with the political parties (since) those people are also going to be running their own elections. ... (Their contact information) should already be on your phone, in your email, today, like right now.” — Natalia Contreras, Votebeat Texas

4. Follow the money in politics

“No matter what your beat is, understanding at least the basics of money in politics and where to find resources is important. It's something a lot of people don't think about all the time, but it relates to so many different aspects of the world generally, whether you're reporting on things like environment or energy or specific companies, or pretty much anything. There's always a ‘money in politics’ aspect that can come up at some point. 

It's something that's really important, in particular, going into an election year. Companies make political contributions, specific individuals (make political contributions), there’s lobbying, there's so many different elements that can come into play and can also add value to your story, whether or not it's focused entirely on money in politics.” — Anna Massoglia, OpenSecrets

5. Understand how elections are run in your community

“I'm always asking for access to see some part of the process (such as a public meeting, workshop or poll worker training) — whatever the law allows me to be there for. It's so helpful. … It really opens your eyes, just like anything else, and you're able then to provide more context to readers about why something went wrong or what happened.

Because there's so much nuance to elections. Something that can sound really bad, most of the time, isn't. It could be an administrative error, or a human error, most of the time. A voting machine that went down doesn't necessarily mean there's voter fraud, right? There’s, you know, a chain of custody that goes into place. There's always a good explanation, but being able to see it with your own eyes, you're able to explain it better.” — Natalia Contreras, Votebeat Texas

6. Don’t be afraid to seek help and ask questions 

“There's so much out there, I know it can get really overwhelming. … There's so many great experts who are always really happy to walk journalists through things." — Anna Massoglia, OpenSecrets

7. And if you’re a student or newer reporter hoping to cover politics one day… 

“The hard thing is if you're a student or if you're trying to break into this (beat) … you're literally physically removed from a lot of the action. You're not with the candidates. You're not out talking to voters all the time. ... But there's a whole set of structures and processes involved in putting on a campaign and putting on an election that I would really encourage students to get involved in.

So for example, understanding how elections are run at a local level is super useful information. And so if students are not covering the campaign, volunteer to actually work an election. (That) will give you a really good education and a really good grounding in how elections actually operate.” — Derek Willis, Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

Take advantage of IRE's election training series

IRE is also hosting a series of webinars, workshops and panels throughout the year to train members and help them feel confident with election coverage. We’ve already hosted a few webinars on general election coverage and campaign finance. You can view the video recordings of these sessions, along with panels from past conferences, here.

Here’s what else we have coming up:

More details on these webinars will be announced as soon as they are confirmed.

And of course, we’ll have an entire track of election-related panels and classes at NICAR24 in Baltimore, with sessions on public records, campaign finance data, misinformation, foreign influence and more.

You can also get guidance from the Federal Election Commission, the Committee to Project Journalists, OpenSecrets, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Politifact — just to name a few resources.

Have an idea for an election-related webinar or workshop? Reach out to IRE training director Adam Rhodes. To receive updates on these events, subscribe to Quick Hits, IRE’s biweekly newsletter.

About the experts

Natalia Contreras covers election administration, election security and voting access for Votebeat Texas, in partnership with the Texas Tribune. She has covered a range of topics as a community journalist including local government, public safety, immigration and social issues. 

Anna Massoglia is OpenSecrets’ Editorial and Investigations Manager. Her research also includes "dark money," political ads and foreign influence. She holds degrees in political science and psychology from North Carolina State University and a J.D. from the University of the District of Columbia School of Law. 

Derek Willis is a lecturer in data and computational journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, where he teaches classes on data analysis and related topics. He previously covered campaign finance for ProPublica, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Congressional Quarterly.

Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) shares in the disappointment and sadness across our industry in the wake of recent layoffs at well-known traditional news outlets and in many smaller markets, which have received less attention but are just as devastating.

The cutbacks hurt journalism’s mission to inform the public. Yet, while fewer resources are disheartening, we cannot give up. There is a reason why the founders of the United States saw fit to include journalists in the First Amendment, and we at IRE are marshaling our resources and offering our strongest support to our colleagues, whose work is the very foundation of democracy.

From its beginnings in 1975, IRE has maintained a network of like-minded, fearless journalists who help each other in times of need, be it debugging a bit of code or finding a new job. And IRE members continue to do that today.

Here are some specific ways that IRE members can help today:

About IRE

Investigative Reporters and Editors is a grassroots, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative journalism. IRE was started in 1975 with the goal of providing a forum for journalists throughout the world to share story ideas, news sources and newsgathering and data analyzing techniques. Its first conference was in 1976. It continues to educate, empower and connect journalists today, now with three conferences annually: NICAR in the spring, IRE in the summer and AccessFest, an all-virtual conference in the fall designed to increase accessibility and affordability of IRE’s top-of-the-line training. Members also have access to workshops and webinars throughout the year, as well as thousands of tipsheets and other resources online. The IRE network is thriving, with members reaching out to each other regularly online to resolve individual technical and content issues. If you’re not yet a member, join IRE here.

AHCJ and IRE present Follow the Money: The Business of Health Care, a free webinar series sponsored by NIHCM Foundation.

The Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) and Investigative Reporters and Editors are collaborating on a webinar series that combines the organizations’ expertise in health reporting and data and investigative journalism.

"Follow the Money: The Business of Health Care" is an in-depth, hands-on webinar series that will equip journalists with the tools they need to tell the story of the big business of health care. The series is free for all journalists, thanks to the generous support of the NIHCM Foundation.

"For the first time in the history of our two organizations, IRE and AHJC are working together to help journalists across the country better cover this critical issue," said IRE Executive Director Diana Fuentes. "Collaboration is essential in today’s journalism world. Together, IRE and AHCJ will provide journalists with tools they need to reach their local communities."

In March, the first of four webinars will explore where to find financial data for hospitals and other health care businesses. The following webinars will explore how to investigate health care pricing and medical debt, and the nuances of private health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.

"We're thrilled to partner with IRE on this comprehensive webinar series that will benefit journalists looking to dig into the money side of health care," said AHCJ Executive Director Kelsey Ryan. "By bringing together our joint expertise, we’re certain journalists will take away valuable tips and story ideas they can use right away."

Mark your calendars for the first webinar of the series, "Using HospitalFinances.org and other tools to tell money stories," 1-2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 27. The session will be led by longtime AHCJ member Karl Stark, Director of Content/Editor in Residence at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Register here!

Looking ahead, the free webinar series continues throughout the coming months, with more details and registration coming soon:


Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting. IRE was formed to create a forum in which journalists throughout the world could help each other by sharing story ideas, newsgathering techniques and news sources. IRE provides members access to thousands of reporting tipsheets and other materials through its Resource Center and hosts conferences and specialized training across the country.

The Association of Health Care Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. With about 1,500 members across the U.S. and around the globe, its mission is to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting, writing and editing. The association and its sister organization, the Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism provide training, resources and support for journalists, including health journalism fellowships, webinars, networking and conferences.

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