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If you missed Investigative Reporters & Editors’ annual virtual-by-design conference AccessFest24, with its focus on helping journalists improve their inclusive practices for their readers and viewers and for their own newsrooms, don’t fret — we’ve got you covered year-round.
IRE has increased its training options for newsrooms seeking guidance on how to better address specific audiences and communities that have long been ignored, not only in coverage but in internal hiring and retention practices. Training is available at affordable prices.
“Although in some fields of work, there has been a backslide or outright backlash over diversity and inclusion, at IRE we know it remains imperative training toward journalists’ goals of doing work that impacts our communities and builds trust with our changing audiences and those we’ve missed at times,” said Francisco Vara-Orta, IRE's Director of Diversity and Inclusion.
“IRE is proud to be a resource to support journalists and news organizations who want to get better at source diversity, combating microaggressions, recruiting and retaining journalists from a variety of backgrounds, and finding ways to weave that intentionality into our daily workflow and newsroom culture,” Vara-Orta said.
In recent years, IRE has been making a concentrated effort to address issues of inclusion and belonging.
Just five years ago, 14% of all IRE members identified themselves as persons of color, according to a 2019 staff report. That is, it was at least 14% because not everyone answered the question about race and ethnicity.
Today, at least 30% of all members identify as POC. It remains “at least” because there are still members who don’t provide that demographic information.
“This success is the result of planning and hard work. IRE has dedicated time and energy to diversify its membership and provide the kind of training our members need to better cover their communities,” said IRE Executive Director Diana R. Fuentes. “We know the value of ensuring all voices are heard. Diversity is not just color. It’s urban and rural, age, gender, physical and mental abilities, spirituality, politics, socioeconomic situations — and many other factors. We are a rich tapestry that benefits from each other’s strengths.”
In June, a report presented to IRE members at the annual IRE conference erroneously stated that IRE members who identify as people of color had reached nearly 40%, which would represent parity with the U.S. population. In fact, however, IRE is not there yet. An accurate, comprehensive accounting on Oct. 16 showed a total of 4,946 members. Of those, 4,334 responded to the question about race and ethnicity and 1,500 identified as POC.
Even at 30%, IRE is doing considerably better than U.S. newsrooms; while a complete database is lacking, the last count put the rate of JOCs in newsrooms at about 20%.
IRE not only provides tools and training for members in the field in this area; we also have stepped up training opportunities to help newsrooms attract and keep a more diverse staff.
IRE offers baseline sessions on how to have an inclusive newsroom and improve source diversity. We also offer deeper-dive sessions on how to move past divides in newsrooms such as microaggressions, how to cover historically marginalized groups, increase audience engagement, improve word choice and framing, help secure digital security and safety for journalists, and how to cover the queer and trans community, specifically.
Sessions are designed by journalists who come from the communities we are trying to better cover and the training can be virtual or in-person. Reduced rates may be available, upon request, for newsrooms that are smaller, rural and/or founded to serve underrepresented communities.
IRE has trained a range of journalism organizations on DBEI in recent years, including The Columbian newspaper in Washington state, States Newsroom, Report for America, Education Week, Boston University’s College of Communication, and Education Writers Association, among others.
Despite newsroom surveys showing slow change when it comes to diversity, the greater desire for inclusion remains. For example, nearly four out of every five people in a survey of journalists by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications said the new efforts to promote DEI have positively affected the journalism industry. Medill underscored its respondent pool reflected the makeup of many newsrooms today as those who took the survey, conducted after 2020’s “media reckoning” were predominantly white, at 86.9 percent. In general a majority of employed U.S. adults, at 56 percent, say focusing on increasing DEI at work is a good thing, according to a Pew Research Center survey last year.
“When you look at most award-winning work in the field, and stories that get laws changed, much of the work often focuses on historically marginalized or oppressed groups,” Vara-Orta said. “But now audiences and journalists are expecting us of all backgrounds to be more culturally competent when we are an outsider and also in some cases for our teams to reflect who we report on in the U.S. and abroad.
Bottom line, it always feels good to learn a new skill and we promise taking these sessions will leave you inspired and empowered to do work whomever you are.”
To see all custom training options, with dozens to choose from, visit here. And to learn the latest about what IRE’s sustained commitment to DBEI has been in recent years, check out our work here.
Thinking about joining IRE or renewing your membership? IRE's fall membership drive is the perfect time to get involved!
Join or renew your membership by Nov. 18 for a chance to win free conference registration, a gift certificate to the IRE store or free newsroom training. The promotion is available Monday, Oct. 21, through Monday, Nov. 18. See details below.
Individuals
Join IRE or renew your membership by Nov. 18 to be entered. Two lucky winners will be drawn to receive a free conference registration in 2025 – your choice of conference! The NICAR Conference will take place March 6-9, 2025 in Minneapolis. The IRE Conference will take place June 19-22, 2025 in New Orleans. The all-virtual AccessFest25 will take place in October, dates to be announced.
A third winner will be selected to win a $50 gift certificate to the IRE store, which has a fun collection of T-shirts, mugs, stickers, accessories and popular books such as "The Investigative Reporter's Handbook."
Members will be automatically entered in this drawing after joining or renewing during the drive period.
Newsrooms
Share the value of IRE with your newsroom! Every newsroom that brings in at least five new members or renewals by Nov. 18 can enter a drawing for a FREE one-hour webinar. Editors can customize the free training by choosing from IRE’s menu of nearly 100 topics!
To enter, one representative from the newsroom must fill out this form after at least five qualified staffers sign up or renew during the drive time period. The winning newsroom will have up to one year to redeem the free custom webinar.
Being an IRE member is more valuable than ever.
With access to reduced or free subscriptions to premium reporting tools, thousands of tipsheets, free training webinars throughout the year, a virtual mentorship program and a robust jobs board full of investigative opportunities, IRE members have a treasure trove of relevant resources to stay at the top of the field.
We like to say the ROI is priceless, but if you're doing the math ... A$50-$75 yearly professional membership provides benefits of more than $2,000! Here are some details:
Students, who join at just $25 per year, have access to nearly all of those same benefits.
Plus, IRE is continually working to make our resources more valuable and accessible to our members. In addition to amping our virtual programming with dozens of training webinars, we just hosted AccessFest24, our annual all-virtual conference, with two-and-a-half days of training on inclusion, accessibility, investigative reporting and data skills.
IRE recently announced a new membership category, allowing early-career journalists to join the organization for $50/year (as opposed to the professional rate of $75/year). "Early career" is defined as those who have been in the business five years or fewer.
Students may keep their student membership for up to one year after graduation if they are still looking for their first journalism job.
About IRE: Investigative Reporters & Editors is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting. IRE provides training, resources and a community of support to thousands of journalists around the world. Learn more about the organization and the benefits of membership here.
On this episode, host Nakylah Carter chats with Knight Election Hub’s Erica Peterson and Scott Klein.
The hub — an initiative funded by the Knight Foundation — contains more than 100 free and discounted resources for reporters and editors covering elections. There are voter guides, data sets, source lists and other helpful tools to answer questions about candidates’ backgrounds, policies, election trends and more.
“Any newsroom that can hear my voice please come to us and use our resources to do incredible election coverage," Klein said of the one-stop destination to prepare for Election Day coverage.
Resources:
Production credit: Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter reported and hosted the episodes. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Music credit: Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
(Oct. 7, 2024) — The IRE Journal is entering a new phase, becoming a digital-only magazine effective Jan. 1.
“We’re excited about this transition, which will allow us to provide members with a more dynamic, interactive experience while still delivering the rich, high-quality content people have come to expect from The IRE Journal,” said IRE Executive Director Diana R. Fuentes.
The Journal is the official publication of Investigative Reporters and Editors, the largest professional journalist organization in the nation. It contains original stories of interest to investigative journalists, blueprints for award-winning work, all kinds of story ideas, useful tips for accessing public records and much more.
Recent editions have explored new ways to use survey data in covering elections, how to accurately report on Indigenous communities and the challenges of covering stories in war zones, among other themes. The final print magazine will be the 2024 fourth-quarter edition, focused on better coverage of disability-related issues.
The new online version of The IRE Journal will be available on the IRE website, along with past issues. Members will be able to access the online-first content after logging in at ire.org with the password they always use to access the site. It will be a work in progress and its design may change as we adjust to the new format and respond to feedback from members.
The online IRE Journal will continue to have the same type of content as the print version: full-length stories written by experts in their fields, IRE members and staff on a wide variety of topics of interest to members, as well as the regular departments and columns that have been become popular over the years, including David Cuillier’s FOI Files, the Investigator’s Toolbox and Collected Wisdom. But the online IRE Journal will allow for providing more timely content when news breaks, interactive visuals and other multimedia elements that aren’t possible in a print product.
The virtual IRE Journal will also feature our recently relaunched podcast, which will have new episodes monthly. And it will provide an expanded showcase for our newsletters: the weekly Local Matters, which rounds up the best investigative stories from around the country; the biweekly Quick Hits, IRE’s popular update on organizational news and opportunities; and the I-team Toolkit, focused on stories and tips for broadcast subscribers but also helpful for investigative journalists in all media. IRE is also pursuing other opportunities to grow its suite of newsletters and educational content.
“The IRE Journal is a crucial resource for journalists all around the world,” said Brian M. Rosenthal, an investigative reporter at The New York Times and president of the IRE Board of Directors. “This change will reduce printing costs and allow us to expand the high-quality content that our members and readers have come to expect. We are all excited to write this next chapter of The IRE Journal as we move into the future.”
“While we cherish our print legacy, we believe this transition will enhance members’ experience while embracing new opportunities for the publication,” Fuentes added.
The first IRE Journal was published in October 1978 as a newsprint tabloid. Early editions were filled with how-to stories such as “Tracking a Trail by Telephone” and “Defending your Investigation in Court.” The frequency of publication varied over the years, from monthly to quarterly. In January 1991, The IRE Journal became a glossy magazine published six times a year, later becoming the quarterly it is today.
It's once again time to enter the Philip Meyer Journalism Award contest. Entries are now being accepted online, through Nov. 20.
Established in 2005, the award was created to honor Philip Meyer's pioneering efforts to utilize social science research methods to foster better journalism. The contest recognizes stories that incorporate survey research, probabilities, and other social science tools in creative ways. Three awards are given annually.
To learn more about the contest, go to the Philip Meyer Award FAQ page, or contact us at awards@ire.org.
DEADLINE EXTENSION UPDATE (Nov. 11, 2024):
The deadline for entries has been extended until Nov. 20, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.
Kate Howard, IRE Board Secretary
If you’ve attended an IRE conference before, you know how life-changing the training can be. IRE events are valuable not only because they teach us new investigative skills, but also because they build a community of support within our ever-changing and challenging industry.
The IRE Board of Directors wants to help even more journalists experience our training, which is why we’re hosting a fundraising challenge to raise money for AccessFest24 fellowships!
These fellowships will allow journalists to attend IRE’s upcoming fall conference at no cost. They are intended for journalists who would otherwise not be able to attend the conference due to financial constraints.
The best part? The Board is making sure your donation will go twice as far! We’ll match the first $1,000 that comes in earmarked for AccessFest fellowships. That means for every $100 you donate, we are sending two journalists to virtual training next month for free!
We hear it from our members all the time, from early-career journalists to the most seasoned investigators: IRE helps journalists feel empowered, inspired and excited to do great work in their newsrooms. The Board hopes AccessFest24 will help even more journalists get the training they need, especially those going through tough times.
To donate, please fill out this online form and enter "AccessFest24 Fellowships" when asked for the type of IRE fund. Whether you can kick in ten bucks or cover a whole fellowship for $100 – Your donation of any amount will get us closer to our goal. Thank you!
About AccessFest:
The AccessFest conference is virtual by design, created with the goal of expanding IRE training to journalists around the world in a more accessible and affordable format. Since 2021, AccessFest (previously branded as our DBEI Symposium), has offered training sessions on belonging, equity and inclusion – both within the newsroom and in news coverage. The conference also features IRE’s signature investigative and data classes.
(Sept. 23, 2024) — The IRE Radio Podcast has released two new episodes exploring recent developments since Investigative Reporters & Editors awarded its annual Don Bolles Medal and Golden Padlock Award at the 2024 IRE Conference.
Listen to the podcast episodes here:
You can find the podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify for Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and other streaming platforms. Read on for more information about each of the new episodes and additional resources and links to topics discussed.
On this episode, host Nakylah Carter chats with the 2024 Don Bolles Medal winner Eric Meyer, publisher of The Marion County Record.
The Don Bolles Medal acknowledges investigative journalists who have “exhibited extraordinary courage in standing up against intimidation or efforts to suppress the truth about matters of public importance.”
Victim to a police raid in August 2023, the newsroom of the Marion County Record received the 2024 Don Bolles Medal for refusing to be silenced. Just a mile down the road in the small Kansas town, the home of Meyer and his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, was raided at the same time as the newsroom. His mother died the day after the raid.
Meyer and Carter unpack what happened with the raid, the importance of support from fellow journalists, and how he and his newsroom persevered.
On this episode of the IRE Radio Podcast, host Nakylah Carter discovers how the Georgia Department of Corrections came to win the 2024 Golden Padlock Award for frequently and deliberately withholding public information.
Guest Lois Norder, senior editor for investigations at The Atlanta Journal Constitution, explains her colleagues’ struggle to cover the government agency despite heavily redacted incident reports, suppressed news of worker arrests linked to contraband, undisclosed prisoner escapes, withheld video footage and more!
Production credit: Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter reported and hosted the episodes. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Music credit: Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
The 13-member IRE Board of Directors elected officers for the 2024-25 term at a meeting June 27.
Brian M. Rosenthal, investigative reporter at The New York Times, was reelected president.
Josh Hinkle, director of investigations and innovation at KXAN in Austin, Texas, was reelected vice president.
Mark Greenblatt, executive editor of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, was reelected treasurer.
The new secretary is Kate Howard, editorial director at Reveal and Mother Jones. She succeeded Darla Cameron of the Texas Tribune, who did not seek reelection.
The new at-large officer is Ana Ley, a reporter at The New York Times. She follows Lam Thuy Vo, a reporter at The Markup and associate data journalism professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York. Vo did not seek reelection.
Officers serve one-year terms. All board members serve two-year terms; six are elected one year and seven the next year. Seven seats were up for election this year.
Greenblatt and Howard were reelected to the board at this year’s elections and are beginning their second two-year terms.
Rosenthal, Hinkle and Ley are in the second year of two-year terms.
Five new board members were elected this year: Alejandra Cancino, investigative reporter based in Chicago; Mary Hudetz, ProPublica reporter based in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Andrew Lehren, director of investigative reporting at City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism; Paroma Soni, data and graphics reporter at POLITICO; and Marina Villeneuve, legal reporter at Salon.
Executive Director Diana R. Fuentes announced the results of the 2024 elections at IRE24 in Anaheim, California, on June 22.
In addition to Cameron and Vo, three others ended their terms in June: Rick Gevers, longtime IRE member and broadcast journalism industry veteran; Aaron Kessler, data and investigative journalist with The Associated Press; and Mark Walker, investigative reporter at The New York Times. They did not seek reelection.
All five along with former board member Simone Weichselbaum, national investigative reporter at NBCUniversal, who resigned for medical reasons last year, were recognized at the IRE24 Awards Luncheon on June 23 for their service.
In the 2024 elections, IRE members elected seven journalists to the Board of Directors. Members present at the IRE24 membership meeting held Saturday, June 22, also approved six amendments to the IRE Articles of Incorporation on voice votes.
Two incumbents — Kate Howard of Reveal and Mark Greenblatt of Arizona State University — along with five newcomers — Alejandra Cancino of Injustice Watch; Mary Hudetz of ProPublica; Andrew Lehren of The City University of New York; Marina Villeneuve of Salon; Paroma Soni of Politico — were elected to two-year terms for the IRE Board of Directors in election results announced Saturday, June 22, 2024. IRE members also elected two members of the Contest Committee, which judges the IRE Awards. Voting was conducted in person and virtually.
The board will meet to elect new officers.
New members of the Contest Committee are Daniel Connolly of Law360 and independent journalist Mark Lagerkvist.
Full election results for the Board of Directors:
| Rank | Candidate | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kate Howard | 636 | 59.22% |
| 2 | Alejandra Cancino | 633 | 58.94% |
| 3 | Mary Hudetz | 585 | 54.47% |
| 4 | Mark Greenblatt | 562 | 52.33% |
| 5 | Andy Lehren | 550 | 51.21% |
| 6 | Marina Villeneuve | 501 | 46.65% |
| 7 | Paroma Soni | 482 | 44.88% |
| 8 | Andy Pierrotti | 439 | 40.88% |
| 9 | Gary Harki | 370 | 34.45% |
| 10 | Micah Luxen | 272 | 25.33% |
Full election results for the Contest Committee:
| Rank | Candidate | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Lagerkvist | 879 | 87.90% |
| 2 | Daniel Connolly | 833 | 83.30% |
As part of the membership meeting at IRE24, there was also a voice vote on each of six proposed amendments to the IRE Articles of Incorporation. The full text of each amendment is included below the voting results:
| Rank | Pass/Fail |
|---|---|
| Amendment #1 | Pass |
| Amendment #2 | Pass |
| Amendment #3 | Pass |
| Amendment #4 | Pass |
| Amendment #5 | Pass |
| Amendment #6 | Pass |
Amendment #1: To expand who can become a “Retired” member of IRE (Section 5.01)
Amendment #2: To expand who can apply to be an “Associate” member of IRE (Section 5.01)
Amendment #3: To allow recent college graduates to temporarily remain student members (Section 5.01)
Amendment #4: Technical/grammatical changes to Section 5.01
Amendment #5: To remove gendered language (Section 2.03)
Amendment #6: To clarify that members can vote on Articles amendments virtually (Section 10.10)
IRE has awarded the 2024 Don Bolles Medal to the Marion County Record for remaining steadfast and refusing to be silenced after police raided the Marion, Kansas, newsroom and the home of its publisher in August 2023. Police confiscated the news organization’s computers, hard drives and server, as well as reporters’ personal cell phones.
The raid was an extraordinary act by an American law enforcement agency, taken days after a reporter at the paper questioned the local police chief about potential misconduct at his previous job. It was quickly condemned by news organizations around the country as intimidation of the press and a violation of the First and Fourth Amendments.
The Don Bolles Medal recognizes investigative journalists who have exhibited extraordinary courage in standing up against intimidation or efforts to suppress the truth about matters of public importance.
The 98-year-old co-owner of the Marion County Record, Joan Meyer, died the day after police searched her home. Her son, publisher Eric Meyer, and the staff of the 4,000-circulation weekly newspaper cobbled together the equipment they needed to continue publishing that week’s issue.
“If we hadn’t been able to figure out how to get computers together, Phyllis and I and everybody else would be handwriting notes out on Post-it notes and putting them on doors around the town, because we were going to publish one way or another,” Meyer told the Kansas Reflector days after the raid.
The raid was based on a search warrant obtained by the police chief, who claimed that a reporter committed identity theft by accessing public state records posted online. The Marion County Attorney later said the search warrants were obtained without the evidence needed and the newspaper’s equipment was returned. Months later, the police chief resigned. A state investigation is ongoing.
“IRE is proud to honor the courage and sheer grit of Eric Meyer and his team in the face of the unconscionable actions of law enforcement against journalists doing their jobs for their community," said IRE Executive Director Diana Fuentes.
A six-member committee reviewed more than a dozen nominations for the Don Bolles Medal. The committee included four previous recipients: Roman Badanin, Pelin Unker, Jeremy Jojola and A.C. Thompson. Kristine Phillips and AmyJo Brown also served.
“We took particular note of the small size of the family-owned Marion County Record and its limited resources and recognized the courage it takes to stand up against this incredible pressure in a small community,” said Brown, the committee’s chair. “Local journalists such as Joan and Eric Meyer and Deb Gruver and Phyllis Zorn are critical to protecting our democracy. We want them — and the world — to know we support them.”
"IRE members immediately responded after hearing about these illegal raids, offering whatever help the Marion County Record might need and our condolences on the passing of his mother, Joan Meyer," Fuentes said. "We stood with Eric Meyer that day and we stand with him and his staff today. We will not be intimidated."
The Don Bolles Medal was created in 2017 in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Arizona Project, an effort led by IRE to finish the work of Don Bolles. The Arizona Republic investigative reporter was killed in 1976 by a car bomb in retaliation for his reporting.
Bolles' death came a few days before the first national IRE Conference in Indianapolis, where the veteran reporter had been scheduled to speak on a panel. At the time, Bolles had been investigating allegations of land fraud involving prominent politicians and individuals with ties to organized crime.
After his murder, nearly 40 journalists from across the country descended on Arizona to complete his investigation. News organizations across the country published their findings.
Their message: Even if you kill a reporter, you can’t kill the story.
Looks like you haven't made a choice yet.
