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Behind the Story: Disproportionate lending by race discovered with data

June 11, 2012

Photo credit:Joanne Lawton/Washington Business Journal It’s one thing to say African American entrepreneurs are recovering from the economic downturn slower than white entrepreneurs, it’s another to explain why.  That’s what Washington Business Journal reporter Bryant Switzky did using a database from the Small Business Administration and other datasets related to the Community Reinvestment Act. “The…

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Behind the Story: Firefighters disabling the city’s budget

March 28, 2012

Photo credit:Elie Gardner/Post-Dispatch Social media can be an individual’s nightmare and a reporter’s goldmine. In “Disability pensions allow some firefighters to collect while working elsewhere,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s reporters used an array of investigative tools to publicize a mismanaged disability pension system that is eating away the city’s funds. But even when firefighters are capable…

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Approaching business journalism with a data state of mind

February 24, 2012

By Hilary Niles@nilesmedia When you think of a company, don’t think of something with a physical presence, like a storefront or a corporate headquarters. That’s just not how companies are organized these days, said Chris Taggart of OpenCorporates.org. And in many cases, he said, there’s simply no single entity that encompasses all of a corporation’s…

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Ask, and often you receive

January 13, 2011

By Doug Haddix, IRE training director A public records request for e-mails sometimes can produce quick-turn watchdog stories with powerful results. Take the experience of John Russell, a business reporter for The Indianapolis Star. Russell sharpened his investigative skills during a two-day IRE watchdog boot camp in Nashville for Gannett employees. The training was one…

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