Reinventing Journalism

8/4/2019 Reinventing Journalism

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ROBERT J. ROSENTHAL

REINVENTINGJOURNALISMAN UNEXPECTED PERSONAL JOURNEY FROM JOURNALIST TO PUBLISHER


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REINVENTINGJOURNALISMAN UNEXPECTED PERSONAL JOURNEY FROM JOURNALIST TO PUBLISHER

by Robert J. Rosenthal,

Executive Director


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Copyright 2011 by the Center for Investigative Reporting

All rights reserved

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ISBN: 978-1-61452-015-3

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In the spirit o journalistic transparency, Reinventing Journalism is

Robert J. Rosenthals account o assuming leadership o the Center or

Investigative Reporting and launching Caliornia Watch, its statewide

reporting team. This report was written at the request o the John S. and

James L. Knight Foundation with the aim o helping ellow journalismorganizations, particularly nonprot startups, learn rom CIRs experiences.

Acknowledgements:Support or this report was provided by the John S. and James L. Knight

Foundation. Christa Scharenberg, Narda Zacchino and Mark Katches

provided invaluable eedback and editing support. Thanks to Nikki Frick or

copy editing and Kate Jessup or organizing the sidebars and or her research.


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CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING:REINVENTING JOURNALISM:1

PART ONE

SustainingInvestigativeJournalism

Means Findinga New ModelIm not sure I would have become

the executive director o the Center

or Investigative Reporting in January

2008 i I had really understood the

challenges ahead o me and had

thought them out careully; I had no

idea what I was getting into.

When CIR approached me, I was 59

and unemployed. For the second time

in six years, I had let, or been asked

to leave, high-level editing positions

at large metropolitan newspapers.

Most recently, I had been managing

editor at the San Francisco Chronicle;

beore that, I was editor o The Phil-

adelphia Inquirer. Nearly 40 years

working in newsrooms let me with

solid core competencies. I knew agood story, I was passionate and I got

great personal reward rom enabling

talented journalists do what they do

best. But many o these skills were not

very useul outside a newsroom.

I could also look back, knowing that

I had been privileged to be involved

with great journalists and important

journalism. As a 22-year-old, I was an

editorial assistant at The New York

Times and was assigned to work onthe Pentagon Papers team. At 25, as a

reporter at The Boston Globe, I was

part o a newspaper-wide eort that

won the Pulitzer Prize gold medal or

public service.

I later moved to the Inquirer, where I

was a reporter and editor during that

newspapers golden age. It was a de-

manding culture in which reporters

were encouraged to be ambitious and

take risks. We also believed we could

produce the best journalism in the

country. It was a supportive system

driven by stories, especially those

that could make a dierence. And it

was un.

The newsroom cultures o that eranurtured young, talented journalists.

So many o them had worked their

way up rom copyboy or clerk jobs,

through a system that rewarded hard

work and talent. It was an environ-

ment where young journalists were

taught by some o the most skilled

and experienced men and women

in the business. The best editors gave

reporters room to fourish, guiding

and teaching along the way, and they

held us to rigorous standards.

I learned that the best editors, and the

best newsrooms, cleared the way or

you to succeed while lending all the

support needed. This was vividly con-

veyed by one o my most infuential

and powerul mentors, Gene Roberts,

then the editor o the Inquirer. He had

just told me he was going to name

me oreign editor, my rst editing

job. I asked him, What do the best

editors do?Well, he drawled, they are like a

blocking back in ootball. They go

through the line, knock somebody

down, clear the way, and lie in the

mud so the guy with the ball can step

on their back and score.

The image has stuck with me. The

most successul editors put their bets

on people who can deliver or them.

When a reporter proved he or she

could produce a great story, the re-ward was to get to do the next one.

There was an adrenaline-lled ur-

gency that made newsrooms crackle.

Those stas rarely worried about

who was nancially sustaining the

work. And they never imagined that

it might end.

At the Inquirer and the Chronicle, I

believed that I could make a dier-

ence in these newsrooms that, like

many others, were beginning an un-

precedented struggle or survival. But

I was deeply rustrated by a lack o

vision, ambition and passion on the

business side that was throttling cre-

ativity and undermining the crucial

role that journalism, and especially

investigative reporting, play in ourdemocracy.

As an editor, the priority was on con-

tent not prot. That was the respon-

sibility o the business side. I never

had to worry about raising a dime.

Many conversations with publish-

ers or corporate ocers ocused on

money. I was never comortable with

those discussions. Far too oten, these

conversations were about cutbacks

aimed not at maintaining prot, butincreasing it at the expense o good

journalism.

Once, on a visit to the Miami corpo-

rate headquarters o Knight Ridder

(the owner o the Inquirer), I walked

into an oce to nd two executives

dancing a jig. I stood there, embar-

rassed, while they laughed and ex-

plained that the share price had hit a

new high that day. They were about

to cash in some stock options.That scene stuck with me and was a

crude reminder o the disconnect in

values between journalists and the

corporate oce. There was nothing

wrong with prot; those prots had

supported the work o journalists,

including cost-intensive investigative

reporting, or decades. But the de-

mand or ever-increasing prot was

the source o the dierence between

a creative, story-driven culture and a

numbers culture.

I relate that story because I see now

that every deeat and every success

Ive had, rom the rst day I walked

into a newsroom in 1969 as a summer

intern to the day I exited as an editor

decades later, has inormed my deci-

sions. These experiences have provid-

ed the uel to help me transorm and


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grow CIR and to create Caliornia

Watch, our successul statewide re-

porting team.

CIR, THE PETRI DISH

Frustrated by the constraints o cor-

porate media, reporters Lowell Berg-

man, Dan Noyes and David Weirstarted CIR in 1977. Over three de-

cades, CIRs ortunes had ebbed and

fowed. It produced a great deal o

award-winning work, much o it in

documentary lms with partners like

PBS Frontline and 60 Minutes.

I was aware o CIRs history and had

worked with the organization on one

story at the Chronicle, but that was

the extent o my knowledge. When

I became executive director, the or-ganization was at risk. The nonprot

investigative space is driven by values

that I have always had at my core, but

its survival is perilous. What I soon

learned was that those o us who have

taken on these new entrepreneurial

and innovative roles in journalism

must evolve. For me, the evolution

was into a role I never imagined play-

ing a publisher.

Beore I joined CIR, I understood

that or the uture models o jour-

nalism to succeed, the money side

and the creative side would have

to align. And in CIRs case, that

alignment had to reside within me.

CIR had journalistic credibility,

and its board already had spent two

years looking or an executive direc-

tor who had vision and the ability

to lead. It is the oldest independent,

nonprot investigative reporting or-

ganization in the country. But its u-

ture was unclear. Taking this job was

a great risk. But it also provided anopportunity to build an organiza-

tion. I had a clear idea o where to

go, but getting there was uncharted.

In the summer o 2007, beore CIR

approached me, Nieman Reports

asked me to write a personal essay

about the uture o journalism. That

process helped me ocus my thoughts

about what kind o newsroom I

hoped to build. I was also just begin-

ning my work with the Chauncey

Bailey Project, a collaboration o

Bay Area journalism outlets. We had

joined eorts to try to solve the

murder o slain Oakland Post Editor

Chauncey Bailey and to continue his

work. The essay or Nieman Reports

was published in the 2007 winter edi-

tion. In it, I wrote:

I didnt realize that a ew months

ater I wrote that essay, I would be

given the opportunity to turn this vi-

sion into reality. Linked in my mind

to these cultural values was the idea

that the new organization would be a

multi-platorm content creator, either

through the expertise o its own sta

or through collaborations with other

news organizations.

I used the image o a wheels spokes

to explain this new model o story-

telling. At the center o the wheel is

the story, and each spoke represents

a dierent platorm most impor-

tantly, a dierent way o telling the

story with each platorm comple-

menting the other. In this way, diverse

audiences would get the story in the

platorm or medium they were most

comortable with.

The crucial element determin-

ing success will be the strength

o emerging relationships among

those whose money will supportthe journalistic enterprise and those

who create the product.

They will need to arrive at a sense

o shared values and passion about

what their journalistic enterprise

is and the value it holds not ex-

pressed in monetary terms alone. To

use the term news organization

does not begin to describe the po-

tential opportunities I see ahead

or these new ventures. Publish-

ing partnerships will be ormedand collaborations among news

organizations though these might

look very dierent than we think o

them today will be crucial.

Creating these organizations us-

ing a new DNA will be easier

than the slow transition we are

witnessing today with the old

model organizations. Energy in-

creases when we become engaged

in building something new instead

o eeling demoralized as institu-

tions we once valued so highly are

being destroyed by our own canni-

balization.

I have aith that new models o

journalism are going to fy out o

this whirlpool o change and besuccessul. Ten years ago, Google

wasnt even in our vocabulary.

Ditto Craigslist and Facebook and

MySpace and YouTube.

Journalism, as practiced at newspa-

pers, is not dead. But journalists will

need to salvage what is essential,

gure out how to transorm it to

the new media, and become lead-

ers in this period o upheaval. It will

take men and women o vision and

deep pockets, whose primary cata-

lyst is not prot.

As journalists, we live in a time

o crisis oering the possibil-

ity o historic change as we wit-

ness a pillar o our democracy be-

ing wounded and withering away.

Great urgency and risk taking is

called or to stem the collapse o

what newspapers have stood or

in our countrys past. We have no

other choice.

What I soon learned was

that those o us who have

taken on these new entre-

preneurial and innovative

roles in journalism must

evolve. For me, the evolu-

tion was into a role I never

imagined playing

a publisher.
http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/node/4851http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/node/4851http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/100138/Optimism-in-a-Time-of-Chaos-and-Change.aspxhttp://www.chaunceybaileyproject.org/http://www.chaunceybaileyproject.org/http://www.chaunceybaileyproject.org/http://www.chaunceybaileyproject.org/http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/100138/Optimism-in-a-Time-of-Chaos-and-Change.aspxhttp://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/node/4851http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/node/4851


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This way o working was dierent

rom how newsrooms traditionally

were organized. Creating an entity thatcould produce this new kind o story-

telling, and also explaining it to poten-

tial unders, was my rst challenge.

My transormation rom journalist/

editor to salesman/evangelical en-

trepreneur began immediately in the

winter o 2008, within weeks o join-

ing CIR. I was basically starting rom

scratch with a sta o seven people

and a budget around $1.5 million.

Much o that unding was dedicatedto a documentary lm project. There

were no major unds in any pipeline.

The nearly two-year-long search or

an executive director had been rus-

trating and disappointing. When I was

hired, not all o the board members

supported my vision. The organiza-

tion or many years had produced a

small number o high-quality proj-

ects annually, unding investigations

individually. Some people thought it

should remain that way. But the time

was right or change.

THE QUEST FOR FUNDS

How do you raise money? I therewas a useul guidebook, I never ound

it. But what I did have was a passion

or journalism, a vision, the credibil-

ity o CIRs 30-year history and sur-

vival instincts. My rst ocus had to

be on sustaining CIR. I knew how to

crat stories and stories were what

most o the journalism unders were

comortable nancing. So I began by

raming pitches around projects.

I spent several rainy February days inNew York visiting major oundations

with Christa Scharenberg, our as-

sociate director, who had been with

CIR or ve years and had been act-

ing executive director or the year

prior to my hiring. I explained the

multi-platorm approach we want-

ed to create and talked about a ew

major projects, including work as-

sociated with Iraq and Aghanistan,

human rights, the environment, and

state coverage o Caliornia. No one jumped out o his or her seat with

excitement. There were doubts and

challenging questions about the ne-

cessity o creating new models out o

small existing nonprots.

Then, weeks ater the New York trip,

we met with the James Irvine Foun-

dation. The program ocer listened

patiently to my multi-platorm con-

cept and to our story ideas, and then

she asked, Can you do somethingthats ocused on Caliornia? Our

unding is ocused on Caliornia.

I was thrilled: A potential major

under was interested. Covering the

state, with a clear ocus on investiga-

tive reporting, did not intimidate me.

I had been a statehouse reporter and

ran newsrooms where state and state-

house coverage were priorities. Cali-

ornia, in addition, is not only big-

ger than most countries, but is ertile

ground or investigative reporting.

The process o creating what would

become Caliornia Watch took o

ater that conversation. A little while

later, I had my rst meeting with sta

o the John S. and James L. KnightFoundation. I laid out a similar menu

and the multi-platorm approach.

They also responded positively. They

liked the idea about creating a jour-

nalistic organization in which using

technology, engaging the public and

sustaining the eort were central to

the mission.

We were interested in engaging the

public in reporting, an evolving con-

cept. We realized that it was worth

exploring the question readers and

viewers oten ask ater an investiga-

tion has been published: What can we

do now? We wanted to nd a way to

build that into the journalism, even

around the sensitive subjects that in-

vestigative reporting explores.

How to manage and engage an audi-

ence was something we would have

to build into our planning. We want-

ed to create new strategies to share

inormation, as well as explore newdistribution models. Social media

was exploding and oered some new

pathways or public engagement and

distribution. The ability o stories and

video to go viral presented a clear op-

portunity. We wanted to create com-

munities o interest around subjects

and geography. And we wanted to

involve these communities to gather

inormation and help nd solutions.

At the same time that I was ormulat-ing a state concept, ormer San Fran-

cisco Chronicle sta writer Louis

Freedberg had gotten seed money

rom the Irvine Foundation and the

William and Flora Hewlett Founda-

tion to develop a similar program.

Freedberg and I had several talks, and

while we had diering visions, there

was reason to share our plans. We both

knew that unds were limited and that

My transormation rom

journalist/editor to

salesman/evangelical

entrepreneur began

immediately in the winter

o 2008, within weeks o

joining CIR.

At the center o our reporting and dis-

tribution model is the story. The spokes

represent the multi-platorm production

and distribution.


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it might be pointless to compete, es-

pecially in increasingly dire economic

times. We decided that we would

pursue our plans separately, but leave

open the possibility o joining orces.

Around this time, a talented televi-

sion producer let CIR. Instead o re-

placing her with another journalist, Idecided to hire someone who could

help pay the bills. We needed to raise

money.

Through a riend, I met someone

with a strong undraising rsum,

including experience raising money

or journalism, a rare combination

given how ew journalism-ocused

nonprots there were at the time. In

what proved to be a crucial decision,

Cherilyn Parsons was hired as a part-

time development director. It was

also a key step in my evolution rom

editor to publisher.

In my past role as editor o a big

newsroom, I resented when editorial

resources were cut while business

budgets increased. But now, thinking

more like a publisher than an editor,

I knew that replacing the departing

journalist with another reporter was

not an option. I needed someone

who understood the world o oun-dations, their nuances and interests,

and had a sensibility about our jour-

nalistic mission. With 15 years o ex-

perience in undraising, much o it

with journalism nonprots and the

Annenberg School or Communica-

tion & Journalism at the University

o Southern Caliornia, Parsons was

exactly what we needed.

LEARNING COLLABORATIVEDISTRIBUTION

In the spring o 2008, reporters on

the Chauncey Bailey Project were

stationed in our small oce. News

organizations throughout the Bay

Area had teamed up to produce and

distribute these stories. The success

o that collaborative project would

serve as a model or building Cali-

ornia Watch, which was still in the

planning stages.

THE CHAUNCEY BAILEY PROJECT

The Chauncey Bailey Project began under

the leadership o Dori J. Maynard, presi-

dent and CEO o the Robert C. Maynard

Institute or Journalism Education in

Oakland, and Sandy Close, executive editor

o New America Media in San Francisco.

Robert Rosenthal coordinated the

investigation.The project was unded by the John S. and

James L. Knight Foundation, the Society

o Proessional Journalists Sigma Delta

Chi Foundation, the UC Berkeley Graduate

School o Journalism, the George Washing-

ton Williams Fellowship, the National Asso-

ciation o Black Journalists, The Newspaper

Guild and The Caliornia Endowment. Tech-

nical assistance was provided by Investiga-

tive Reporters and Editors, Inc.

CONTRIBUTING NEWS ORGANIZATIONS >>

p Alameda Times-Star Bayp Area Black Journalists Association

p Center or Investigative Reporting

p Contra Costa Times

p East County Times

p The (Fremont) Argus

p Hayward Daily Review

p Investigative Reporters and Editors

p KGO Radio

p KGO-TV ABC 7

p KQED Public Radio

p KTVU-TV

p Maynard Institute or Journalism

Education

p New America Media

p New Voices in Independent Journalism

p The Oakland Tribune

p San Francisco Bay Guardian

p San Jose Mercury News

p San Mateo County Times

p Society o Proessional Journalists

p Tri-Valley Herald

p UC Berkeley Graduate School

o Journalism

p Valley Times

SCHOLARLY AND INDUSTRY WHITE PAPERS >>

Partners o Necessity: The Case or Col-

laboration in Local Investigative Reporting

Report by Sandy Rowe, Shorenstein Center

Knight Fellow and ormer editor, o The

Oregonian

Re-Imagining Journalism: Local News or a

Networked World

2011 policy paperby Michael R. Fancher,

ormer editor oThe Seattle Times and

co-convener o Journalism That Matters

Pacic Northwest

Inorming Communities: Sustaining

Democracy in the Digital Age

Knight Commission Report, 2009

PRAISE AND PRESS COVERAGE >>

Chauncey Bailey Project shows impact o

investigative reporting

Transcript o speech delivered by Eric New

ton, senior adviser to the president o the

Knight Foundation, at the annual conven-

tion o Investigative Reporters and Editors

June 11, 2011

Justice written in ink

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, June 18, 201

Q & A with Martin Reynolds: Oakland Tri-

bune editor talks about The Chauncey

Bailey Project

By Jane Kim, Columbia Journalism Review

May 14, 2009

Articles on Editors Killing Made

a DierenceBy Tim Arango, The New York Times,

Feb. 22, 2009

AWARDS EARNED >>

McGill Medal or Journalistic Courage,

University o Georgia, 2010

Knight Award or Public Service and

Investigative Journalism Award in the

Small Site Category,

Online News Association, 2009

Community Service Award, Bay Area

Black Journalists Association, 2009

New Media Online Project: News and

Investigative Reporting, 150,000 +

circulation, National Association o Black

Journalists, 2009

Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award,

Columbia University Graduate School

o Journalism, 2009

Community Service Award, National

Association o Black Journalists, 2009

Medium-sized newspapers (100,000 to

250,000), Investigative Reporters and

Editors, 2009Best Practices Award,

National Association o Black Journalists

2008

Tom Renner Award,

Investigative Reporters and Editors, 2008

James Madison Freedom o

Inormation Award,

Society o Proessional Journalists North-

ern Caliornia Chapter, 2008
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The Bailey Projects model had gained

a great deal o positive attention. It

was clear that we had hit the tipping

point the point at which news or-

ganizations with disparate skills and

expertise and shrinking resources

were better o working together. We

knew that we were doing great jour-

nalism, which elt good, but the col-laboration was necessary to keep the

investigation going; it was producing

stories that eventually led to convic-

tions and reorms in the Oakland

Police Department.

With the Chauncey Bailey Project, we

learned that we could control distri-

bution through as many partner rela-

tionships as we could manage print,

television, radio, websites and that

traditional concerns about exclusivity,even with 15 or 20 organizations in-

volved, were less relevant i a story was

strong and compelling. While most

editors, including me, would have de-

manded exclusivity in the past, they

now preerred to be part o something

big rather than be excluded.

Every news organization involved in

the Chauncey Bailey Project had the

right to post each story on its web-

site at the same time. What this meantwas that i the embargo time was 10

p.m., a story went live then across all

the news organizations. Television

stations with 10 p.m. broadcasts re-

ported the story on air then. I their

broadcast was at 11 p.m., it was live

on their website earlier and aired on

TV later. For newspapers, it meant

web rst, print in the morning. For

radio, generally, it was websites rst

and broadcast at drive time in the

morning. We could time the releaseand coordinate it with many news

organizations in dierent media. It

sounds simple today, but in 2008, it

was innovative. And it worked.

The Chauncey Bailey Projects sto-

ries saturated the Bay Area. It was a

tremendous, positive lesson, not only

or the project, but or the proession

o journalism. The project shaped

where we were about to go next.

PART TWO

Diving intothe worldo undraising

brings manylessonsThe Center or Investigative Report-

ing was poised to undergo a dramatic

relaunch in the spring o 2008, tak-

ing us ully into the age o the In-

ternet and beyond, but i you visited

our humble Berkeley oce, it would

have been impossible to imagine thechanges ahead.

The CIR workplace was in what was

once the lot o an old horse stable in

a mixed-use neighborhood near the

original Berkeley Bowl, a local land-

mark. With no central heating system,

it could be brutally hot or cold. The

sta worked with scarves, ngerless

gloves and wool caps on cold days and

in warm, blowing wind generated by

industrial ans, their cables crisscross-ing the foor, in the warmer months.

We were a struggling nonprot with

no rills.

In the late spring, the sta began to

pull together the detailed plans or a

new Caliornia project, a plan to cre-

ate a statewide investigative reporting

team covering major issues like educa-

tion, the environment and health care.

The job o putting the unding pro-

posals together ell to Associate Direc-tor Christa Scharenberg and Devel-

opment Ocer Cherilyn Parsons. As

CIRs executive director, I did a nal

edit and review, but their knowledge

and experience in grant writing and

oundation interests were invaluable.

At the same time, we were trying to

keep CIR alive, unding other po-

tential projects and managing exist-

ing editor ial work. We were in two

simultaneous modes: survival and

growth. In the mainstream journalism

world, the gutting o newsrooms was

accelerating and the global nancial

markets were beginning to destabilize.

I had no experience writing a propos-

al and never had been in a situation in

which there were multiple potentialunders with dier ing mandates, pro-

grammatic interests, personalities and

idiosyncrasies. My experience with

budgets and planning documents

had been with publishers and corpo-

rate executives. When I was editor o

The Philadelphia Inquirer, the news-

room had an array o resources that

seemed limitless compared with

where I now was.

And very important, by comparison,

I was used to dealing with one direct

unding source, a publisher who ne-

gotiated with corporate bosses, occa-

sionally with me in the room. When

those meetings were over, you knew

where you stood. Still, as a journal-

ist, I was never trained or those kinds

o negotiations. In that world, when

revenue and prot numbers were

met, there was relative tranquility. But

when revenue and prots dropped,

nothing else mattered but makingor adjusting the nancial goals. That

environment was lled with anxiety,

confict, distrust and shortsighted so-

lutions, all driven by the bottom line.

Money-driven conversations were

never comortable or me, but they

were now the central and most crucial

element o my role in moving Cali-

ornia Watch and CIR orward. Un-

like the newspaper industry, however,

dealing with oundations was never

about making a number; it was about

convincing them that you could lead

an organization that could make a

dierence, and, specically, convinc-

ing them to invest in the Caliornia

project. A riend told me, You are

the product. That it rested so heavily

on me to sell the idea and vision

to potential unders was unsettling.


10/27


With oundations, I was soon to learn,

you operated on their cycle and at

their pace. They have many suitors.

They have internal dynamics, con-

ficts and sta changes that can alter

your organizations lie, or better or

worse. But as I was reminded again

and again, the job o oundations is

to give away money. My job was topresent a strong organization and ar-

gument or their investments.

There was a herky-jerky rhythm to

the various oundation unding cycles

and board schedules, which let very

little time or me to do almost any-

thing else at CIR. Face time with

unders, which required the mun-

dane scheduling and conrming o

many meetings, was as essential as

understanding the interests o eachoundation. I traveled requently to

meet with oundation sta members,

which oten involved three-day cross-

country trips with as many as ve

meetings a day. Getting in the door

was not always easy. The experience

o Scharenberg and Parsons was cru-

cial to opening doors. But the meet-

ings were imperative to developing

a rapport with very busy program

ocers.

I was a novice at this, but every step

was a new lesson.

FACE TIME WITH A BILLIONAIRE

PHILANTHROPIST

The most eective ace-to-ace meet-

ings occurred when I was able to con-

vey our vision and mission and relay

my personal story as a journalist. Par-

sons had to be present at many o the

meetings to coordinate ollow-up and

drat the proposals. Juggling multiple

oundation requests and proposals

meant setting up a rigorous manage-

ment system or which Scharenberg

and Parsons had responsibility. They

had my trust, and they had my back.

Very important or me, they pushed

back, asked questions, understood our

mission and turned that vision into

clear prose. The Caliornia project

and CIRs uture were as reliant on

their skills and persistence as anyones.

Around this time, in the spring o

2008, I had my rst one-on-one con-

versations with philanthropists. The

rst step is getting in the door. Some-

times, the door can be opened by

chance or by contact made throughboard members, riends or acquain-

tances. Other times, the door never

opens. There is no real training or

this. You are selling your wits, person-

ality, passion and vision; chemistry is

essential.

A riend who had secured unding

rom George Soros or a business proj-

ect years ago told me that in meet-

ing a potential grantee, Soros would

know in a couple o minutes whether

he would und you. He said Soros

made those decisions with his gut.

Through another riend, I was able

to meet San Francisco philanthropist

and billionaire nancier Warren Hell-

man. When I asked more experienced

undraisers how I should prepare or

that meeting, the consensus was be

yoursel.

I went to Hellmans oce. His clothes

were rumpled; his shoes were worn

and comortable-looking. He took ohis sports jacket and, without looking,

tossed it in a heap on a corner chair.

Id never met anyone with his wealth,

and I knew he had the capacity to be

a nancial game changer or CIR. I

immediately elt comortable with

him; I told him about my back-

ground, we talked sports, and I even-

tually launched into where I hoped

to take CIR and the kinds o journal-

ism we would do. I did not eel likea salesman, though I suppose thats

what I was.

Ater a ew minutes o my vision

talk, Hellman stopped me.

We have to und the mother, he said.

The mother? I responded. I had no

idea what he meant.

You, he said. You need the support

around you to do what you can do.

I did not realize it at the moment, but

he got the vision. As a businessman

and entrepreneur, Hellman under-

stood the concepts I was laying out,

and he was thinking about how to

support them, and me.I came out o the meeting with a

good eeling. I liked Hellman, and he

wanted to meet again. I had been told

that developing an individual do-

nor could be a lengthy process. It was

about relationship building, and here

it was in practice.

Over the next ew months, I met

with Hellman several times. He said

he would help and made a $100,000

git rom his amily oundation. Moreimportant, he oered to host a lun-

cheon in his oce or potential do-

nors, some o his riends and anyone

I wanted to invite. This was a big op-

portunity. His advice to me was not

to talk about stories, but about the

new model.

On the morning o the luncheon,

the Hearst Corp. announced that

it might sell or close the San Fran-

cisco Chronicle. When I walked intoHellmans boardroom, he walked up

to me, grabbed my elbow, pulled me

aside, looked me in the eye and asked,

Should I buy the Chronicle?

I told him I didnt think it would be a

good investment.

As he got more involved in seeing

how he could help stabilize San Fran-

cisco journalism, Hellmans interest in

CIR waned (though he did continue

his generous support or two moreyears), and his ocus went to unding

his own startup project, The Bay Cit-

izen, a San Francisco online news site.

I understood his thinking, and I

greatly appreciated his support. Large

individual gits are a crucial pillar o

the sustainability ormula or CIR

and all successul nonprots. I now

knew that I could make a positive im-
http://www.baycitizen.org/http://www.baycitizen.org/http://www.baycitizen.org/http://www.baycitizen.org/


11/27


pression on individual philanthropists.

But I also had learned that building

these relationships wouldnt always

translate into support that could pro-

vide the type o nancial resources

we needed to reach our vision.

As the Hellman interlude unolded

and unraveled, we also were work-ing with many oundations, large and

small. It is important to have many

lines out and be ready to evolve and

adjust your thinking and strategies.

For example, in initial conversations

during the spring o 2008, we were

talking about creating a destination

website or the Caliornia project.

We were considering the idea o be-

ing the go-to site or in-depth Cali-

ornia news, including our own in-

vestigations and aggregated content

rom around the state.

But at the same time, the Chaunc-

ey Bailey Project demonstrated the

strength o collaborative reporting

and distribution. We had created the

consistent ability to reach large au-

diences through many simultaneous

publishing and broadcast partners. It

would have been oolish to ignore

that successul learning experience.

Through the project which re-vealed a shoddy police investigation

and led to two murder convictions in

2011 we saw that large audiences

could be reached through the multi-

platorm, multi-partner approach.

That experience ultimately steered

us rom the destination website idea.

The collaborative model, publishing

through many partners simultane-

ously, became central to the vision or

CIR and Caliornia Watch.

NAILING DOWN FOUNDATION GRANTS

Work with the program ocers and

consultants with the John S. and

James L. Knight Foundation and the

James Irvine Foundation accelerated

ater the summer o 2008. In the all,

we received a planning grant rom the

Irvine Foundation that supported more

sta, as the Caliornia project became

the ocus o our growth strategy.

As the nancial crisis exploded, our

anxiety mounted, as did pressure on

newsrooms. Our primary argument

or the state project had been the

precipitous decline in the number

o journalists covering Sacramento.

By the all o 2008, the number oreporters in Caliornias capital had

been more than halved in ve years.

Every news organization in the state

was undergoing dramatic cuts. And

when cutting is the ocus, innovation

is nearly impossible.

We had to think and act dierently.

And or me, the Chauncey Bailey

Project continued to be a guide. Dur-

ing this time, CIR board members

were watching. They were not active-

ly engaged in ormulating a strategy

or raising money, but they were 100

percent supportive o the concept

and our eorts. By the end o 2008,

though we had proposals under way,

the uture o CIR and the Caliornia

project were very uncertain.

The complexity o our collaborative,

multi-platorm multimedia model

was going to be a challenge to cre-

ate and manage. Adding to the chal-

lenge was the act that we still had no

guarantee o unding. But the conver-

gence o the collapse o legacy media,

the availability o talented yet rus-

trated journalists, advances in tech-

nology and interested unders created

opportunity.

The underpinning o that opportuni-

ty was a shared belie that journalists

and investigative reporting had played

an important role in our democracy,

and that role had to evolve and be

supported going orward.

The passion that pushed us at CIR

was also born out o personal convic-

tions. My ather had started the jour-

nalism program at The City College

o New York in the 1930s. He diedat age 95 in the spring o 2008, a ew

months ater I started at CIR. As I

went though his les ater his death, I

ound a yellowed piece o paper with

two typewritten paragraphs:

Why should reedom o speech and ree-

dom o press be allowed? Why should

government, which is doing what it be-

lieves to be right, allow itsel to be criti-

cized? It would not allow opposition

by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more

atal things than guns. Why should any

man be allowed to buy a printing press

and disseminate pernicious opinions cal-

culated to embarrass the government?

-Nikolai Lenin, 1920

The basis o our governments being the

opinion o the people, the very frst ob-

ject should be to keep that right; and were

it let to me to decide whether we should

have a government without newspapers,

or newspapers without a government, I

should not hesitate a moment to choosethe latter. Thomas Jeerson, 1787

We were in a dierent world rom

when those statements were made,

but the words resonated with me and

still rang true.

During this time, ormer San Francis-

co Chronicle reporter Louis Freed-

berg was having conversations the

William and Flora Hewlett Founda-tion regarding his own Caliornia ini-

tiative, and I had been asked by the

Irvine Foundation to consider work-

ing with him. He and I had talked

about this earlier and now decided to

work together rather than compete

or shrinking unds. Funders clearly

preer collaboration among poten-

tial grantees another lesson quickly

learned.

The collaborative model,

publishing through many

partners simultaneously,

became central to the vi-

sion or CIR and Caliornia

Watch.


12/27


The narrative or our proposal was

taking shape as we honed key prin-

ciples. To develop and test this model,

the Caliornia project would:

p Develop collaboration as a key

strategy or the news operations o

the uture

p Implement multimedia distributionas part o every story and test new

digital technologies

p Develop innovative, replicable

strategies that can generate

revenue rom multimedia content

and help sustain operations

During the last quarter o 2008, we

submitted the proposals to the Irvine,

Hewlett and Knight oundations. The

total original budget or the rst yearo Caliornia Watch was nearly $1.5

million. That would have covered

14 positions and a portion o CIRs

core sta. We had been working very

closely with program ocers at all o

the oundations. Each had its own an-

gle o interest in the project. Irvines

mission is to expand opportunity or

the people o Caliornia to participate

in a vibrant, successul and inclusive

society. Thus, that oundation saw

the decline o state reporting as a seri-ous threat. We worked with the edu-

cation program at Hewlett, which was

seeking increased coverage o educa-

tion issues. Knight is the single largest

under o journalism in the United

States, with a keen interest in high-

quality journalism, new technologies

and community engagement.

Each o the potential unders knew

o the others interest in the project,

and they all conerred about our proj-ect. That allowed us to ensure that the

three proposals complemented each

other and provided comprehensive

and staggered support over the proj-

ects rst three years.

By the end o 2008, Irvine had agreed

to a $1.2 million grant over three years.

In March 2009, Hewlett matched Ir-

vine. Freedberg began working with

us as director o the project, and

longtime journalist and ormer UC

Berkeley Graduate School o Journal-

ism sta member Marcia Parker was

hired to help with the startup. Knight,

because o the chaos in the nancial

markets, deerred a decision until its

June 2009 board meeting. We decid-

ed to begin planning to launch the

project, but not to actually launch itor make urther hires until we knew

our ull unding commitment.

Knight was pushing us to be as in-

novative as possible around distribu-

tion, engagement and sustainability.

I agreed with those core strategies,

though I also believed our ability to

generate strong stories would be the

basis o our success and core compe-

tency. I wanted to establish the proj-

ects journalistic credibility as quicklyas possible. That meant we needed

strong editorial leadership. As word

spread o our good ortune with

the Irvine and Hewlett oundations,

journalists began contacting us.

Mark Katches, a Caliornian who had

been hired by the Milwaukee Jour-

nal Sentinel in 2006 to create and run

an investigative reporting team, and I

made contact shortly ater the Irvine

grant was approved. He also sent mea proposal that he had put together

on his own months beore or an in-

vestigative reporting project based in

Sacramento. His thinking, derived

rom years o reporting and editing

in Caliornia and Sacramento, mainly

or The Orange County Register, was

remarkably similar to ours. He called

his plan Caliornia Watch and had

already bought the domain name

which he later transerred to CIR.

Our leadership team met with Katch-

es, and he was a clear choice to run

the project i we secured unding. In

June, the Knight Foundation awarded

CIR a two-year $1.3 million grant

or Caliornia Watch, bringing the

total unding or the project to $3.7

million over three years. Katches was

hired with a start date o Aug. 1. But

he began working with us imme-

diately rom Milwaukee during his

weekends and evenings to nalize

stang and budget.

BUILDING THE TEAM

Katches and Freedberg came rom

very dierent backgrounds, but they

shared the belie that there was an op-portunity and need or a new kind o

journalism organization in Caliornia

that would serve the interests o the

states citizens. Each had envisioned

his own model or how this organiza-

tion might work.

Katches, who started his career in the

Bay Area and also worked in Sacra-

mento and Southern Caliornia, was

considered one o the best investiga-

tive editors in the country. He had a

strong personality and was extremelyorganized. Although he had a secure

position in Milwaukee, coming o

a Pulitzer Prize win or his sta, his

amily grew tired o the harsh Wis-

consin winters. He was ready to get

back to his home state and be part o

building a new model o journalism.

Freedberg, an anti-apartheid South

Arica native, had seen injustice rst-

hand. He had a long career in Calior-

nia journalism as well, most recently

at the Chronicle. He had let that

newspaper hoping to create a media

collaborative in Caliornia. He had

worked in the nonprot journalism

sector as a young man, including with

the legendary Sandy Close, executive

editor o Pacic News Service and its

ospring the ethnic media collab-

oratives New Caliornia Media and

New America Media.

... we announced that we

were hiring six reporters

and two multimedia

producers. Nearly 700

journalists applied.


13/27


In early July, we were ready to start

hiring. While we had a large amount

o money, it had to stretch over three

years. The budget was tight, and we

needed to maximize it. We were set-

ting out to cover the largest state in

the country. Through journalism em-

ployment websites, we announced

that we were hiring six reporters andtwo multimedia producers. Nearly

700 journalists applied. Marcia Parker

managed the onslaught. As we be-

gan our early strategy sessions and

thought about the qualities we were

seeking in new sta members, there

was agreement that we would be cre-

ating a multi-platorm, collaborative

news organization where everyone

had to think o himsel or hersel as a

potential entrepreneur in addition to

being a journalist.

In conversations with senior sta, all

o whom were involved in the inter-

view process, we stressed the need to

be clear with applicants that this was a

ragile, but great, opportunity to build

something unique. We also empha-

sized that everyone would be part o

the evolution o the project, and they

had to be open to, and comortable

with, collaboration internally and ex-

ternally. We also were determined tohire a diverse team.

The range o applicants was striking,

rom multiple Pulitzer Prize winners

rom legacy newspapers to younger

journalists who had worked only

or web-based news organizations.

Katches, who had been on the board

o Investigative Reporters and Edi-

tors and involved with its mentoring

program, also had connections to a

network o young, talented and am-bitious journalists.

There was an abundance o new

multimedia journalists on our list and

strong computer-assisted reporting

applicants. We also were looking or

people who had multiple-platorm

storytelling skills and were comort-

able users o social media and new

technologies. It was clear that many

journalists were interested in being

part o building something new. Even

with our uncertain uture, applicants

were willing to be part o what we all

saw as a noble experiment.

Our new team would need the ability

to adapt to changes and opportuni-

ties in technology. I did not want achange-resistant culture wedded to

past practices. We needed to have a

fexible and nimble organization. We

needed to be constantly looking out-

ward to the audience and our part-

ners needs.

Katches came on the scene with the

authority to shape the editorial team,

which would be reporting to him. He

had the experience, credentials and

reputation to build the unit. In the

end, we hired the team we had envi-

sioned: rom veteran Caliornia jour-

nalists Lance Williams (San Francisco

Chronicle) and Robert Salladay (Los

Angeles Times); to younger reporters

Erica Perez (Milwaukee Journal Sen-

tinel), Christina Jewett (ProPublica),

Corey G. Johnson (The Fayetteville

Observer) and Chase Davis (Des

Moines Register); to multimedia pro-

ducers Mark Luckie (10,000 Words)

and Lisa Picko-White (reelancer);to data analyst Agustin Armendariz

(The San Diego Union-Tribune).

In July 2010, Caliornia Watch was

ound by the American Society o

News Editors to be one o the most

diverse online newsrooms in the

country.

We were poised to take o, but there

would be bumps and challenges ahead.

PART THREE

CaliorniaWatchComes

to LieAs reporters and editors began to ar-

rive rom around the country in Au-

gust 2009, we had the energy, and the

chaos, o a startup.

In all my years as an editor at news-

papers, I never had been involved in

a strategy that actually added sta.

Suddenly, the Center or Investiga-

tive Reporting was exploding, andso were the challenges and rewards

o managing growth. As executive

director, I preerred this scenario,

but I quickly learned that managing

growth is as challenging as managing

cutbacks. Downsizing creates an en-

vironment o gloom and a sense o

ailure in newsrooms. It is emotional-

ly distressing or everyone, and it was

personally brutal or me. But when

you are building and more than dou-

bling your organization, the sudden

addition o sta creates an exhilarat-

ing but complicated brew. Issues and

problems come fying at you rom so

many directions that decisions have to

be made quickly using both your gut

and your head.

My role during this initial period was

to instill condence and trust in the

new team and to somehow make sure

the culture we were creating was as

open and fexible as we envisioned.This may sound easy, but I knew how

unpredictable things could be, as with

any team, when you actor in person-

alities and egos.

While we were hiring and getting the

new sta in place, Louis Freedberg,

who was part o the management sta

o Caliornia Watch, traveled to vari-

ous parts o the state to discuss our
http://asne.org/article_view/articleid/833/asne-completes-second-census-of-online-only-news-sites-finds-increasing-diversity.aspxhttp://asne.org/article_view/articleid/833/asne-completes-second-census-of-online-only-news-sites-finds-increasing-diversity.aspxhttp://asne.org/article_view/articleid/833/asne-completes-second-census-of-online-only-news-sites-finds-increasing-diversity.aspxhttp://asne.org/article_view/articleid/833/asne-completes-second-census-of-online-only-news-sites-finds-increasing-diversity.aspx


14/27


plans with editors and news directors

and to assess their potential interest in

our stories. There was plenty o in-

terest mixed with skepticism about

how our new model would t in the

traditional journalism world but no

commitments.

Through the Chauncey Bailey Proj-ect, I had gotten to know key lead-

ers at KQED. The infuential public

broadcasting radio station in the Bay

Area has statewide reach, as well as

strong ties to National Public Radio.

We approached KQEDs manage-

ment with an idea: Would they be

willing to partner and work ull time

with Caliornia Watch? A proposal

was made that we split the salary and

expenses or Michael Montgomery,

a veteran radio producer who had ahistory o working with both orga-

nizations. We wanted him to have ull

access to our investigations. Caliornia

Watch and KQED would collabora-

tively make the decisions on which

stories to pursue.

We would not impose creative con-

trol over radio; our reporters and edi-

tors would work together, and CIR

would have the opportunity to re-

view nal scripts to make sure that allo our acts matched and that impor-

tant interviews conducted or radio

could be woven into print versions o

stories. Montgomery would work out

o both our oce and KQEDs, but

needed to be in KQEDs studios to

record his work. (Current newspaper

covered the collaboration.)

The partnership with KQED was

a tremendous opportunity or us to

consistently work with a highly re-

spected media partner and reach a

statewide broadcast audience in the

millions. (KQED syndicates its Cali-

ornia Report to every public radio

station in the state.)

We also wanted to reach beyond the

states English-speaking residents.

We knew we could not develop the

relationships or stature that Sandy

Closes New America Media (NAM)

had with ethnic media. Another les-

son we were putting into practice was

not to duplicate something that an-

other organization already did well.

And NAM does what it does really

well. NAMs sta would translate our

stories, sometimes or a ee, and dis-

tribute them to their network. Theydont do this or every story, and go-

ing orward, we can do a better job o

working with them on reporting. But

the times weve worked together have

been successul.

All o this activity the new deal-

making, the opportunities and growth

was like a shot o adrenaline. Our

small lot was abuzz with energy. It

was exciting and crowded. Everyone

could hear each others phone calls;internal communications literally

meant calling across the room. When

consultant Marcia Parker pushed

back her chair rom her desk, she

hit the chair o our chie undraiser,

Cherilyn Parsons. The rerigerator

was overfowing.

LAUNCHING CALIFORNIA WATCH

From the beginning, I knew we could

not create two distinct cultures with-

in CIR the national reporting desk,

where we had a ew projects under

way, and Caliornia Watch though it

was challenging to integrate the two

entities. There had to be a symbiosis

between CIR and our potentially

ormidable baby.

What better way to do this than

through our inaugural Caliornia

Watch story? G.W. Schulz, a CIR

sta member, had been working on

a project on state-level homelandsecurity activities and spending. He

had gathered extensive inormation

and data on every state. As a way to

quickly launch Caliornia Watch, even

as the new sta was settling in, we

decided to break out a story ocused

on Caliornia, looking at waste and

abuse within the multimillion-dollar

homeland security grant system. This

story, which would be pegged to the

anniversary o Sept. 11, oered a solidroadmap or testing our collaborative

model. While Schulz could write the

overall story or the state, he also had

detailed data or almost any county or

locality, which oered a great avenue

or partnering with media outlets

throughout Caliornia to localize the

larger investigation.

Now we had to gure out distri-

bution. Would editors be open to a

ready-made, unique 9/11 anniversary

story? Would they demand exclusiv-

ity? Would we charge or the story?

We decided we would establish a ee

i a newspaper wanted to publish our

work. I we worked together with

a news outlet rom inception, we

would not charge.

As we began to notiy potential part-

ners in late August, I thought we

CALIFORNIA WATCH LAUNCH

PRESS COVERAGE >>

Caliornia Watch Says Yes to

Open, Networked Investigative

Reports

PBS MediaShit, Dec. 17, 2009

Filling the Gap: Caliornia Watch,a new investigative reporting

venture, is launching a beeed-up

online operation

American Journalism Review,

August/September, 2009

Caliornia Watchs revenue model:

Charge news outlets, target donors

Nieman Journalism Lab, Nov. 17,

2009

Caliornia Watchs Revenue Model

The Nonprot Road, Nov. 17, 2009

Public TV, Radio Stations to In-

crease Local Investigative Coverage

as Columbia Report Advised

Poynter Online, Nov. 12, 2009

Amid Newsroom Cutbacks Are

Watchdogs Still Awake? And Can

Outsiders Fill the Gaps?

Editor & Publisher, Oct. 29, 2009
http://currentpublicmedia.blogspot.com/2009/11/kqed-cir-pair-up-for-statewide.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/12/california-watch-says-yes-to-open-networked-investigative-reports351.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/12/california-watch-says-yes-to-open-networked-investigative-reports351.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/12/california-watch-says-yes-to-open-networked-investigative-reports351.htmlhttp://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4834http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4834http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4834http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4834http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/11/california-watchs-revenue-model-charge-news-outlets-target-donors/http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/11/california-watchs-revenue-model-charge-news-outlets-target-donors/http://journalismnonprofit.blogspot.com/2009/11/california-watchs-revenue-model_17.htmlhttp://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/99400/public-tv-radio-stations-to-increase-local-investigative-coverage-as-columbia-report-advised/http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/99400/public-tv-radio-stations-to-increase-local-investigative-coverage-as-columbia-report-advised/http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/99400/public-tv-radio-stations-to-increase-local-investigative-coverage-as-columbia-report-advised/http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Archive/SPECIAL-REPORT-Amid-Newsroom-Cutbacks-Are-Watchdogs-Still-Awake-And-Can-Outsiders-Fill-the-Gaps-http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Archive/SPECIAL-REPORT-Amid-Newsroom-Cutbacks-Are-Watchdogs-Still-Awake-And-Can-Outsiders-Fill-the-Gaps-http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Archive/SPECIAL-REPORT-Amid-Newsroom-Cutbacks-Are-Watchdogs-Still-Awake-And-Can-Outsiders-Fill-the-Gaps-http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Archive/SPECIAL-REPORT-Amid-Newsroom-Cutbacks-Are-Watchdogs-Still-Awake-And-Can-Outsiders-Fill-the-Gaps-http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Archive/SPECIAL-REPORT-Amid-Newsroom-Cutbacks-Are-Watchdogs-Still-Awake-And-Can-Outsiders-Fill-the-Gaps-http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Archive/SPECIAL-REPORT-Amid-Newsroom-Cutbacks-Are-Watchdogs-Still-Awake-And-Can-Outsiders-Fill-the-Gaps-http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/99400/public-tv-radio-stations-to-increase-local-investigative-coverage-as-columbia-report-advised/http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/99400/public-tv-radio-stations-to-increase-local-investigative-coverage-as-columbia-report-advised/http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/99400/public-tv-radio-stations-to-increase-local-investigative-coverage-as-columbia-report-advised/http://journalismnonprofit.blogspot.com/2009/11/california-watchs-revenue-model_17.htmlhttp://www.niemanlab.org/2009/11/california-watchs-revenue-model-charge-news-outlets-target-donors/http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/11/california-watchs-revenue-model-charge-news-outlets-target-donors/http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4834http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4834http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4834http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4834http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/12/california-watch-says-yes-to-open-networked-investigative-reports351.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/12/california-watch-says-yes-to-open-networked-investigative-reports351.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/12/california-watch-says-yes-to-open-networked-investigative-reports351.htmlhttp://currentpublicmedia.blogspot.com/2009/11/kqed-cir-pair-up-for-statewide.html


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would be ortunate i we got two to

our news organizations to sign on.

Freedberg, Parker, Caliornia Watch

Editorial Director Mark Katches and

I divided up news organizations in

the state on the basis o personal rela-

tionships. Between us, we knew many

o those we would call or e-mail. We

needed distribution. So what i some-one said they would not or could not

pay? Did distribution trump revenue?

There was internal disagreement

about this. Some elt we should es-

tablish market value. Others elt we

should try to reach the broadest audi-

ence possible, which would mean ne-

gotiating lower prices i news outlets

balked. We would ask that the story

be published on websites as well, with

links back to our site or supporting

stories or data.

Several actors helped us succeed in

this initial distribution challenge. Per-

sonal relationships mattered. We each

could get editors to respond to us

nearly all o the time, and CIR had

credibility and a positive reputation

within editing circles or accurate,

credible reporting. As we all came

rom traditional news organizations,

we were sensitive to the needs and is-

sues o these newsrooms whose edi-tors we were contacting. We wanted

to make this process as easy as possible

or our clients. The process was time

consuming but crucial.

Freedberg, Katches and I had di-

ering comort levels with the sales

pitch. We established a rough pric-

ing structure that was fexible when

it came to pushback. The pricing

was based on circulation o newspa-

pers and ranged rom $50 to $350 orthe story. (We have since increased

our ees signicantly.) News web-

sites would get the story or ree, as

would other nonprots and KQED.

With hindsight, the amount o back

and orth and our anxiety over the

sales pitch was comical, given the

relatively small amounts o money we

were seeking. But it was outside o

our journalistic comort zone.

We began making as many calls as we

could, describing Caliornia Watch

and CIR to editors. We explained that

we had a story in which they might

be interested, describing how it could

be localized, letting them know that

we were oering it to others around

the state, possibly even other media

in their market, telling them we werecharging (cringe), and describing

timing and plans or release.

We had no idea i this would work,

but it did. Schulzs story ran on the

ront page o about two dozen news-

papers, reaching more than 1.8 mil-

lion subscribers, and on television,radio, news websites and in ethnic

media outlets throughout the state.

We produced the print story at three

dierent lengths and edited custom

versions or several news organiza-

tions. In San Francisco, KGO-TV

produced a 5-minute piece based on

our reporting and eaturing our re-

porter; they were even able to con-

duct a key interview that we were

unable to get, which helped strength-en the entire investigation.

The Marin Independent Journal as-

signed one o its photographers to the

story and then allowed us to distrib-

ute those photos to all o our part-

ners. Through our partnership with

New America Media, the story was

translated and distributed in Chinese,

Vietnamese and Korean. La Opinion

in Los Angeles translated the story

into Spanish, published the story and

allowed us to distribute their transla-

tion to other Spanish-language out-

lets, an arrangement we have contin-

ued. We did not charge any o these

key partners in exchange or their

contributions to the project.

Coordinating the release was a lo-

gistical eat. The embargo was set to

the time o the KGO-TV evening

broadcast, with all news outlets ree

to post to their sites and then publish

or broadcast on their own schedule.

No one complained. In act, the only

criticism was rom some news organi-

zations asking why they hadnt been

part o it. We were stunned. News or-

ganizations wanted to be part o this.

What was surprising to us was how

the need or exclusivity, once so sac-

rosanct throughout print as well as

broadcast, ell by the wayside. Our

new model was being widely ac-

cepted and, better yet, adopted. Audi-

ences were so ragmented that news

organizations would rather share a

good, unique story than not have it

and cede it to their competition. And

in this era o shrinking revenues, most

media could not aord to nance thedepth o reporting CIR and Cali-

ornia Watch wanted to do. That rst

CALIFORNIA WATCH IN 2010

SELECTED PRESS COVERAGE >>

Caliornia Watch Editorial Director:

Exclusives No Longer That Important

Mediabistro, July 28, 2010

Caliornia Watch Launches Site to

Track Gov Candidates Statements

Mediabistro, June 21, 2010

The New Investigators

Columbia Journalism Review,

May/June 2010

Can newspaper muckraking carry

on in nonprots?

Associated Press, Jan. 17, 2010

Schulzs story ran on the

ront page o about two

dozen newspapers, reach-

ing more than 1.8 million

subscribers, and on televi-sion, radio, news websites

and in ethnic media outlets

throughout the state.
http://socialtimes.com/california-watch-editorial-director-exclusives-no-longer-that-important_b53000http://socialtimes.com/california-watch-editorial-director-exclusives-no-longer-that-important_b53000http://socialtimes.com/california-watch-launches-site-to-track-gov-candidates-statements_b52723http://socialtimes.com/california-watch-launches-site-to-track-gov-candidates-statements_b52723http://www.cjr.org/feature/the_new_investigators.phphttp://dailycaller.com/2010/01/17/can-newspaper-muckraking-carry-on-in-nonprofits/http://dailycaller.com/2010/01/17/can-newspaper-muckraking-carry-on-in-nonprofits/http://dailycaller.com/2010/01/17/can-newspaper-muckraking-carry-on-in-nonprofits/http://dailycaller.com/2010/01/17/can-newspaper-muckraking-carry-on-in-nonprofits/http://www.cjr.org/feature/the_new_investigators.phphttp://socialtimes.com/california-watch-launches-site-to-track-gov-candidates-statements_b52723http://socialtimes.com/california-watch-launches-site-to-track-gov-candidates-statements_b52723http://socialtimes.com/california-watch-editorial-director-exclusives-no-longer-that-important_b53000http://socialtimes.com/california-watch-editorial-director-exclusives-no-longer-that-important_b53000


16/27


story taught us a great deal about not

being araid to try new things and to

take risks. Our clients news orga-

nizations and their content users

would let us know what worked.

REACHING WIDER AUDIENCES

As thrilled as we were with the reach

o our rst story, it also gave us a look

at one o our primary challenges go-

ing into the uture: how to engage

and capture our audiences. By pub-

lishing through dozens o other out-

lets, we had limited knowledge about,

or access to, our readers, viewers and

listeners. Moving orward, our stories

oten would be the most read and

e-mailed on other news sites, amass-

ing hundreds o reader comments

and tens o thousands o page views.The blessing and curse o our wide

and nonexclusive distribution net-

work is that it takes ull advantage o

the web and new media: Our stories

travel, so they reach huge audiences,

but it is extremely dicult to quan-

tiy, capture and engage those people

when they essentially belong to

other outlets. Weve become more

sophisticated in tracking the reach o

our content. But we still need to get

better at it so that we can accuratelymeasure our audience. Knowing who

our readers, viewers and listeners are

helps us engage with our audience

directly. Its also an important metric

or our unders.

The distribution o our rst story ex-

ceeded our wildest expectations. We

ollowed up with two more packages

in the all o 2009 one in November

on the ailure o a program to reduce

class sizes in K-12 schools and anoth-er in December on the an infuen-

tial campaign donor. We also opened

our our-person Sacramento bureau,

based in KQEDs capital oce. Sac-

ramento veteran Bob Salladay works

as CIRs senior editor there with re-

porters Corey G. Johnson, Christina

Jewett and Chase Davis.

By January 2010, our investigative

reporters and a stable o outstanding

reelancers had more than 35 inves-

tigations under way. With help rom

consultant Susan Mernit, we also

launched the Caliornia Watch web-

site. It eatured close to 20 searchable

databases and daily blogging by our

reporters and editors. We also es-

tablished an aggressive social media

strategy. Our model was to continueto distribute through others, but we

wanted our site to showcase our work

and not be dormant between investi-

gative stories.

We were in a period o relative und-

ing stability, and we moved in January

to a larger oce in Berkeley, with the

modern conveniences o heating and

air conditioning, sucient bandwidth

to keep our computers rom crash-

ing, and a desk or everyone. Our newhome is less expensive than San Fran-

cisco oce space, which we also con-

sidered, and is close to UC Berkeley

and its Graduate School o Journal-

ism. Our proximity to the journalism

school has enabled some o us to teach

or guest lecture there and to nd

ways to collaborate with students.

While signing a ve-year lease at our

new location gave us a lower rate,

there was also an element o risk;there is no certainty o unding that

ar into the uture. It was a roll o the

dice. More and more, I was learning

that theres a lot o crapshooting in

the decision making o a nonprot

leader. Yet, without taking risks, you

cannot grow.

As we adjusted to our new workspace,

our teams personalities, strengths

and weaknesses became clearer. We

ocused on stories and creating the

model and, most important, a culture

in which multiple platorms and skills

were at the table rom the beginning

o a project. But our gaps were evi-

dent. Every newspaper editor has had

the experience o having a deeply re-

ported story come to a close when

someone asks, Where are the photos

and graphics? Despite our all-out at-

tempt to cover our multimedia bases,

there was so much more we wanted

to be able to do with each story

but there was only so much our sta

could do. Some skills were lacking.

We had no photographer or graphic

artist on our team, or instance.

The eort to think with about visuals,

multimedia and audio involved a cul-tural re-education or some o our

reporters. We needed to shed the

traditional media practice o keep-

ing stories secret rom all but top

editors beore publication. Instead, we

wanted everyone to embrace a rou-

tine o presenting stories-in-progress

to a group o colleagues who could

help build interactive graphics, video,

radio and animation. The broader

team would not only ask questions,

but also think o ways to take the actsand data and use them to tell the sto-

ry in their specialty. This was vital to

producing multi-aceted stories across

various platorms so that each ele-

ment could be in process simultane-

ously as we headed to a release date.

It was much easier to create and shape

this model rom the beginning than

it would have been to transorm an

entrenched legacy newsroom, where

change was typically met with resis-tance. In this new model, any ques-

tion was a good question, and sta

members had to be reminded and en-

couraged to take risks and think di-

erently about storytelling and reach-

ing disparate audiences.

More and more o my time was in-

volved in undraising and internal

issues mainly related to managing

personalities, egos and the conficts

that did arise, as they would in any

growing workplace. I elt ortunate

that I had management experience

in dealing with personnel issues in

my past roles, albeit in much larger

organizations. In a smaller work-

place, such issues are magnied

and must be dealt with switly

or they can become poisonous.


17/27


SOLVING DISTRIBUTION

CONUNDRUMS

As stories began to be completed and

distributed, we rened the editing

and distribution process we had es-

tablished with the homeland security

story. We knew rom that experience

that there was a need to help newsorganizations localize our stories. But

we could not manage that process or

every partner.

Katches came up with a solution. He

edited three to our versions o a print

story, by geography, when possible.

We might have Southern, Central

and Northern Caliornia versions, or

example. All o these stories were dra-

matically shorter than the ull-length

version we would publish on our

website. In some cases, 3,000-word

stories would be cut by two-thirds

or news organizations that couldnt

accommodate lengthy text stories.

Partners would have access to our

data and could crat local inserts or a

new top with our sign-o. They also

could do their own sidebars with a

local ocus. We delivered budget lines

as early as possible, requently two

weeks ahead o the publication date.

KQED radio and Montgomery, our

shared reporter, were involved rom

the beginning o stories, deciding in

consultation which ones he would

ocus on or broadcast. The rest o us

quickly learned the concept o sound,

just as we learned about the need or

video through our work with KGO-

TV and others. Agustin Armendariz,

our data analyst, created searchable

databases or many stories.

Distribution was taking up more oFreedbergs and my time. We knew

we needed a sta member ocused on

distribution and partner management.

We also wanted to add a health re-

porter, so we set out to nd additional

unding. By the spring o 2010, The

Caliornia Endowment awarded us a

grant or a public engagement man-

ager and a community health reporter.

With the support o the Ethics and

Excellence in Journalism Foundation,

we added our distribution and on-

line community manager, Meghann

Farnsworth, in August.

Farnsworth not only places our work

with partners, but also is integral to

pushing our stories out through nu-merous social media platorms. She

started with Facebook and Twitter

but later began to explore emerging

and niche platorms and tools, such as

Tumblr and StumbleUpon. She keeps

abreast o almost daily changes in so-

cial media, Internet sites and emerging

platorms that can help us grow and

engage new audiences. She has helped

reporters experiment with new story-

telling platorms, such as Storiy. She

keeps track o where our work travelsin the blogosphere and attends coner-

ences to raise awareness o Caliornia

Watch and CIR in key communities

that could urther distribution.

By the end o 2010, we produced ar

more stories than was our goal and

reached much wider audiences than

we anticipated. We completed 24

in-depth investigations, distributed

through our partners. In addition, we

had published 1,118 blog posts. Wenow call them news posts because

so many o them are ully reported

stories. Twenty-eight searchable da-

tabases complemented our work and

helped the public localize and per-

sonalize big issues. Stories included a

look at BP receiving stimulus unds,

cesarean section rates across Caliornia

and issues related to maternal health,

and climate change legislation in Cal-

iornia.

Our stories were having an impact:

p We detailed numerous citations

or a major retailer or selling jewelry

tainted with lead, prompting

the retailer to pull items rom store

shelves nationwide and leading to

pending state legislation to more

eectively prevent such sales.

p We showed how hundreds o

nursing homes had cut sta and

reduced wages, even as they took

money rom a taxpayer und

designed to do just the opposite.

Ater the story ran, the governor

announced a series o quality and

accountability reorms that were

approved by the Legislature andsigned into law.

p We showed how law enorcement

agencies were increasingly using

DUI checkpoints to seize vehicles

rom unlicensed drivers, mostly

immigrants. Aterward, based on

our work, the city o Los Angeles

and seven other cities halted the

practice o impounding vehicles.

The story also resulted in public

protests. Legislation was introducedto dramatically curb impounding

at checkpoints.

Our work has led to industry awards,

including a general excellence award

rom the Online News Association

and Journalists o the Year and Inves-

tigative Reporting awards rom the

Northern Caliornia Chapter o the

Society o Proessional Journalists.

Our Caliornia Watch website also

won a National Headliner Award orbest online-only news site.

With Public Engagement Manager

Ashley Alvarado in place, we pro-

duced in-depth React & Act mate-

rials in conjunction with major inves-

tigations. To enable our audience to

take action on issues they care about,

Alvarado created Q&As, act sheets,

links to good sources o urther inor-

mation, and contact inormation or

key players and government ocials,

all in one easy-to-navigate place. Our

engagement also extended to direct

community contact, such as ree lead

screenings ollowing our investiga-

tion into contaminated costume jew-

elry, and Open Newsroom events in

which we station reporters in Wi-Fi-

accessible caes around the state to ex-

plain Caliornia Watch to the public.


18/27


In another eort to expand our ap-

proach to reporting and engagement,

Caliornia Watch joined American

Public Medias Public Insight Net-

work, which, among other unctions,

enables reporters to ask questions and

nd knowledgeable sources or stories.

In our rst year, we partnered with

nearly 80 news organizations and

reached an audience conservativelyestimated at 25 million. This was

based on newspaper circulation (in-

cluding newspaper websites) and rat-

ings or TV and radio partners. But

we know that this represents a rac-

tion o our actual audience.

Our own web trac grew month

to month, and by the end o 2010,

we had more than 200,000 unique

visitors. Our revenue rom Calior-

nia Watch stories was $27,375. Not

much, but we had established the

principle o payment or content.

PART FOUR

Businessdevelopmentstrategies arekey to uture

successAs 2011 began, the Center or Inves-

tigative Reporting and its robust new

creation, Caliornia Watch, were in

good shape. We had received a great

deal o positive publicity the previous

year and earned recognition within

the journalism community, which

helped with undraising. In the last 18

months, the sta had quadrupled and

had more than 30 projects under way.

Our projected organizational budget

or the year was up to $4.7 million,

with $2.3 million o that or Calior-

nia Watch. We were not ully unded

or the year, but we were cautiously

optimistic we would successully ob-

tain the unding to move the organi-

zation into the uture. But I was aware

that our uture was ar rom secure.

We were not lling open positions

and were closely watching our budget.

The evolution o CIR and the col-

laborative culture we had envisioned,

both inside and outside the organi-

zation, were a reality. The multi-plat-

orm and nontraditional distribution

strategies worked. And we were posi-

tioned to take advantage o changing

technologies.

Strategies that would help increase

revenue became our ocus. We

brought on a business development

consultant with the goal o nal-

izing a business plan that would o-

cus on three things: growing our

audience, generating more revenue

and increasing user engagement.

From our altering eorts in the all

o 2009, we had become more con-dent about the value and possibili-

ties o charging or content. Going

into 2011, Editorial Director Mark

Katches and Distribution and On-

Reinventing Journalism

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Transcript of Reinventing Journalism