7.1 Planning and executing long-term investigations

Investigative journalism requires meticulous planning and execution. Reporters must identify newsworthy stories, assemble skilled teams, and manage resources effectively. Long-term investigations demand strategic approaches to uncovering wrongdoing and holding power accountable.

Successful investigations adapt to challenges and new developments. Reporters cultivate sources, access public records, and collaborate with experts. They overcome roadblocks, capitalize on breakthroughs, and know when to pivot. Flexibility and persistence are key to impactful investigative reporting.

Identifying Newsworthy Stories

Uncovering Potential Investigations

• Investigative stories often stem from tips, leads, or observations that uncover wrongdoing, injustice, or systemic problems that are not widely known
• Strategies for identifying potential stories include:
  • Cultivating sources who can provide insider information (whistleblowers, government officials)
  • Analyzing data and documents to identify patterns or anomalies (financial records, public databases)
  • Monitoring beats for red flags or inconsistencies (sudden personnel changes, citizen complaints)
  • Following up on previous reporting that raised unanswered questions or hinted at deeper issues

Evaluating Newsworthiness and Impact

• Newsworthy investigative stories have significant impact, hold powerful entities accountable, and spur change or reform
• Key elements that make an investigative story newsworthy include:
  • Scale of impact on the public or specific communities (widespread health hazards, billions in wasted taxpayer dollars)
  • Egregious nature of wrongdoing or injustice (blatant corruption, gross negligence)
  • Prominence of entities or individuals involved (major corporations, high-ranking officials)
  • Timeliness and relevance to current events or issues (stories tied to major policy debates or social movements)
• Determining the scope, focus and feasibility of an investigative story requires:
  • Assessing the strength and reliability of initial findings or tips
  • Identifying key questions that need to be answered to prove or disprove allegations
  • Estimating the time, personnel and resources required to fully report out the story
  • Weighing the potential risks and roadblocks (legal threats, uncooperative subjects)

Pitching and Planning Investigations

• Pitching an investigative story to editors requires:
  • Clearly articulating the newsworthiness and potential impact of the story
  • Providing strong supporting evidence and documentation for key claims
  • Outlining a strategic reporting plan with achievable milestones and deadlines
  • Addressing potential challenges, sensitivities or roadblocks and plans to overcome them
• Editors will greenlight investigative stories that are:
  • Well-developed with a clear focus and solid initial findings
  • High-impact with the potential to spur change or hold power to account
  • Aligned with organizational priorities and resource constraints
• Pursuing an investigative story requires developing a strategic plan that:
  • Identifies key human and documentary sources to pursue
  • Outlines a phased reporting process with specific tasks and benchmarks
  • Sets realistic deadlines and factors in the need for flexibility
  • Emphasizes discretion to avoid tipping off story subjects or competitors

Resource Management for Investigations

Assembling an Investigative Team

• Long-term investigative projects require a significant investment of time, personnel and financial resources from a newsroom
• Effective management of these finite resources is critical to the ultimate success and impact of the project
• Assembling a diverse and skilled investigative team with clearly delineated roles is key to long-term project management
• The team should include:
  • Reporters with strong source networks and interviewing skills
  • Data journalists who can analyze complex datasets and documents
  • Editors who can provide strategic guidance and rigorous review
  • Visual journalists who can create compelling graphics and multimedia elements
  • Engagement reporters who can gather community input and maximize story reach
  • Producers who can coordinate workflows and manage logistics

Budgeting and Timeline Management

• Establishing a realistic project budget aligned with the scope of the investigation is essential
• The budget should account for:
  • Reporter and editor time allocated to the project
  • Travel costs for field reporting and source meetings
  • Legal review fees for sensitive stories
  • Public records request fees and potential FOIA litigation costs
  • External costs like outside experts, data analysis tools, or document processing
• Creating a project timeline with key milestones and deadlines keeps the team on track and accountable
• The timeline should be divided into distinct phases:
  • Preliminary research and source development
  • Deep reporting and document gathering
  • Data analysis and fact-checking
  • Writing, editing and legal review
  • Publication planning and rollout
• Building in buffer time for unexpected delays or roadblocks is crucial for hitting deadlines

Organizing Investigative Files and Meetings

• Maintaining organized and secure investigative files is critical for projects involving large amounts of sensitive documents and data
• Best practices include:
  • Establishing clear file structures and naming conventions
  • Implementing access protocols and permissions based on team roles
  • Using encryption for sensitive files and communications
  • Instituting a regular backup system to prevent data loss
• Holding regular team check-ins to assess progress, troubleshoot roadblocks, and refine plans keeps long-term projects moving forward strategically
• Check-ins provide:
  • Accountability for meeting individual and team benchmarks
  • Opportunities to collaborate and brainstorm solutions
  • Alignment on evolving priorities and next steps
  • Coordination of parallel workstreams and dependencies

Collaboration in Investigations

Internal Teamwork and Communication

• Effective collaboration among investigative team members leverages diverse skills and knowledge to strengthen the reporting
• Strategies for fostering teamwork include:
  • Clearly communicating individual findings and progress updates
  • Sharing source contacts and background information
  • Providing constructive feedback on each other's work
  • Proactively offering help or resources to teammates
• Building a culture of trust, transparency and mutual respect is key to successful collaboration

Cultivating Human Sources

• Identifying and cultivating key human sources, both on and off the record, provides invaluable insider knowledge and documentation for investigative stories
• Strategies for developing sources include:
  • Conducting targeted outreach to potential whistleblowers or subject matter experts
  • Building long-term relationships based on mutual trust and benefit
  • Demonstrating credibility, empathy and integrity in all interactions
  • Protecting source confidentiality and safety when warranted
• Carefully assessing source motivations and reliability is critical to avoid being misled or manipulated

Accessing Public Records and Data

• Accessing public records and databases enables investigative reporters to find key facts and data to bolster their reporting
• This requires:
  • In-depth knowledge of federal, state and local open records laws
  • Skill in crafting targeted requests that overcome exemptions and delays
  • Persistence in appealing rejections or excessive redactions
  • Facility in analyzing large datasets to identify newsworthy trends or outliers
• Proactively filing broad requests on beats prone to investigative stories (e.g. police misconduct) creates a rich repository for future reporting

External Collaborations and Partnerships

• Consulting with outside experts in fields relevant to an investigation provides authoritative analysis to translate complex issues
• Types of experts to consult include:
  • Lawyers who can explain relevant statutes or assess legal risks
  • Academics who have researched the investigation subject area
  • Accountants who can decipher financial records or tax filings
  • Data scientists who can analyze or model large datasets
• Experts can also suggest avenues for further reporting and fact-check drafts for accuracy
• Collaborating with other news outlets can expand the reach and impact of investigative stories
• Potential partnership arrangements include:
  • Informal tip-sharing or referrals on stories outside a newsroom's scope
  • Formal co-publishing agreements to share reporting or amplify distribution
  • Partnerships require clear communication and terms to ensure smooth coordination and mutually beneficial outcomes

Adapting Investigative Plans

Responding to Reporting Setbacks

• Investigative reporting is an iterative process where new information and roadblocks continually emerge, requiring adaptability and contingency planning
• Regularly reassessing the direction of the investigation based on reporting successes and setbacks is essential
• Unexpected source developments may require rethinking the reporting approach:
  • If a key source backs out, identify alternative sources or evidence to fill the gap
  • If a source provides contradictory information, triangulate with other records or interviews
  • If the story premise is no longer tenable, consider shifting the framing or scope
• Unanticipated legal or ethical issues may necessitate seeking expert counsel and adjusting plans to mitigate risk:
  • If faced with a lawsuit threat, consult newsroom lawyers and carefully vet allegations
  • If a source is revealed to have a major conflict of interest, weigh the credibility impact
  • If pursuing the story would cause undue harm, explore alternative angles or framings

Overcoming Roadblocks and Delays

• Data or document roadblocks may require appealing denials, refining requests or finding workarounds
• Strategies for overcoming FOIA rejections include:
  • Filing administrative appeals arguing the request was improperly denied
  • Negotiating with the agency to narrow the request or expedite processing
  • Suing the agency in court to compel disclosure of the records
• If key documents or datasets are unobtainable, explore alternative sources:
  • Seek copies from sources who may have access to the records
  • Look for similar information in other databases or record types
  • Shift to a human source-driven approach to obtain key facts or evidence
• If the reporting process hits delays, keep the project momentum going by:
  • Tackling discrete tasks that can be completed in the interim
  • Revisiting old threads or sources that may yield new information
  • Looping in editors or colleagues for brainstorming and troubleshooting

Capitalizing on New Developments

• Major new developments in an ongoing story may warrant accelerating the reporting timeline or expanding the scope of the project
• Types of developments that could spur a strategic pivot include:
  • Breaking news of an official investigation into the subject of the reporting
  • A high-profile source agreeing to an on-the-record interview
  • The release of a major new trove of data or documents related to the story
• Strategies for capitalizing on new developments include:
  • Quickly assessing the credibility and impact of the new information
  • Adjusting the project scope or timeline to incorporate the development
  • Deploying additional resources or personnel to pursue new leads
  • Coordinating with editors on when and how to publish the new findings

Knowing When to Pivot or Abandon

• If an investigative story is not panning out due to scant evidence or debunked premises, knowing when to pivot or pull the plug is critical
• Warning signs that a story may not be viable include:
  • Key sources or documents failing to materialize after extensive efforts
  • Initial findings being contradicted by authoritative sources or records
  • The scope of the story narrowing to the point of insignificance
  • Reporting hitting repeated dead-ends with no viable alternative approaches
• Strategies for pivoting or ending a stalled project include:
  • Identifying a narrower or different story angle that is still newsworthy and impactful
  • Repurposing elements of the reporting for other stories or projects
  • Candidly communicating with editors about the story's diminished prospects
  • Developing a plan to wind down the investigation while preserving any valuable insights
• Regularly evaluating the viability of a story based on the strength of findings and resources required prevents the sunk cost fallacy of clinging to a fatally flawed investigation