“Can Newspaper Muckraking Carry On in Nonprofits?” reports “…As financially strapped newspapers have scaled back, charitable foundations have poured tens of millions of dollars into nonprofit watchdogs in hopes of keeping politicians and businesses in check. These groups figure to do a bigger share of the investigative legwork in the coming years….
“The way California Watch operates is typical for the investigative nonprofits. Its correspondents dig up information and look for a newspaper, TV station or other outlet to get it published. Often they work closely with traditional news outfits during the reporting and editing, though arrangements vary by group and story. The group usually gets paid for its articles, though others give out material for free; the publisher gets a story and the nonprofit gets a venue for its work…
“It is difficult to say how many investigative reporters have lost their jobs, but 5,900 newsroom positions — about 11 percent of the total — were cut in 2008 alone, according to the American Society of News Editors. Investigative Reporters and Editors, an industry group, says its membership was down about 15 percent in 2009. Submissions for its most recent annual investigative journalism awards were down more than 20 percent.”
WATCHDOG: A wag of the tail! NewsLanc also feeds leads to the local print media. The purpose is to supplement and critique, not to supplant.
