If you fill out the "Forgot Password" form but don't get an email to reset your password within 5-10 minutes, please email logistics@ire.org for assistance.
"In a difficult year for journalism, the winners of the 2023 IRE Awards give us hope,” said Lily Jamali, chair of the IRE Contest Committee. “The work of these dogged journalists reflects an ongoing commitment to truth and accountability against a backdrop of dwindling industry resources. Entries showed the powerful impact that can come from combining investigative reporting techniques with vivid storytelling. Our colleagues at times put themselves at great risk. They nevertheless got the story and helped bring about change.”
This year’s winners were selected from more than 450 entries. Since 1979, the IRE Awards have recognized the most outstanding watchdog journalism of the year. The 2023 contest covers 19 categories across media platforms and a range of market sizes. The top award is the IRE Medal, given to winners of the FOI Award and Tom Renner Award each year. Contest Committees may designate IRE Medals for additional work deserving special recognition for remarkable impact and accomplishment. Three newsrooms received IRE Medals this year.
Note: Contest entry materials from IRE Award winners and finalists will be made available in the IRE Resource Center. You must be logged in with your IRE membership to access the IRE Resource Center.
Correction: The April 5, 2024, announcement of the 2023 IRE Award winners and finalists was updated on April 12, 2024, to include a second winner for the Print/Online - Division III category. The winning entry from Tampa Bay Times was accidentally omitted from the original post. We regret the error.
Judges’ comments: This sweeping report from The Globe and Mail is one of the most ambitious public records projects ever published. Its bold combination of investigative analysis and public education reconnected a nation with the democratic ideals enshrined in its freedom of information law.
Judges’ comments: This international investigation revealed the U.S. government profits from and promotes the sale of American guns around the world, threatening political stability in emerging democracies, fueling gang violence and undermining its own stated foreign policy. After its publication, the Biden administration halted the export of most guns for 90 days and ordered a review of the government’s support of the U.S. gun industry. The team spent a year accumulating and deciphering data from a number of countries, including confidential case files from Latin America. This series incorporated especially striking informational graphics and network-quality video in addition to clear, vivid storytelling to keep the judges absorbed from beginning to end.
Judges’ comments: In this extraordinary series, ProPublica reporters unearthed the most significant ethics scandal to hit the modern-day Supreme Court, an institution that has long shrouded itself in a veil of secrecy. The team showed the hypocrisy that lurked beneath that veil in a manner that has proven unassailable despite many failed attempts to challenge their reporting. This ambitious project, revealing how certain sitting justices benefitted from the largesse of wealthy tycoons, sparked a national conversation on judicial reform and prompted the adoption of the court’s first-ever ethics code. From building their own database of Alaska fishing licenses to tracking down yacht workers scattered around the globe, “Friends of the Court” offers a masterclass in investigative journalism. As Justice Louis Brandeis wrote more than a century ago, “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” ProPublica’s reporters showed just how impactful sunlight can be.
Judges’ comments: This was a comprehensive investigation into a national health crisis hiding in plain sight: the tens of thousands of Americans who bleed to death from potentially survivable injuries each year. The team reviewed nearly 300 medical journal articles and did exhaustive data work to create a map showing the distance from any address to the closest trauma center, highlighting the stark disparities between rural and urban communities. The judges were impressed by the in-depth reporting, clear writing, compelling presentation and focus on solutions to this pressing issue.
Judges’ comments: Nursing home abuse is sadly a familiar story, afflicting vulnerable seniors at the hands of mostly low-paid, under-supervised staff. But less familiar is deadly violence against seniors, particularly those with dementia, at the hands of other residents. The Arizona Republic unearthed a disturbing pattern of resident-on-resident harm, with seniors suffering physical and sexual assault at the hands of other seniors, chiefly as a result of neglect, poor staff training and high turnover. The reporting team filed more than 40 public records requests for police calls to 400 facilities, built a database to track cases and calls, then wrote a Python script to scrape the state’s citation system. The result was an impressive package that highlighted a little-known problem that showed state policy protected secrets instead of seniors, benefiting an underregulated industry.
Judges’ comments: This compelling investigation left virtually no stone unturned in its exploration of kratom, a substance that has been linked to "legal morphine" despite its risks. Members of the team showed admirable initiative as they exposed the industry's supply chain, marketing tactics and lobbying efforts in states across the country. In addition to its exhaustive efforts involved in tracking kratom overdoses, the Tampa Bay Times centered families affected by promoters of this unregulated substance, and furthered the public's understanding of an emerging health threat.
Judges’ comments: This entry had one of the best lines in all of the entries and is the gold standard of reporting on this issue. The story did the police’s job for them, handing them their investigation on a silver platter. This story showed impact, had striking visuals and is relatable to people across the country. The more the story went on, the better it got, and it left no stone unturned.
Judges’ comments: This was a searing and comprehensive piece of reporting that unmasked the Russian government’s abduction and relocation of Ukrainian children, making an emotional impact far greater than a list of names and numbers or scattered news reports ever could. Judges were also impressed by the team’s use of open-source intelligence and strong accountability interviews with the specific officials responsible for taking children from their homes and families — all work that will likely stand as an important testament once the war is over.
Judges’ comments: This team relentlessly pursued public records and scoured social media about the training an Oath Keeper veteran was providing hundreds of Texas law enforcement officers: that their authority is above that of the U.S. Supreme Court and that county sheriffs are more powerful than the FBI. KXAS discovered the officers earned continuing education credit for the classes and that the Texas department overseeing the program didn’t even know the curriculum. The team took the familiar story of the Oath Keepers and Jan. 6 much deeper and broader. Their work resulted in state investigations and policy changes. It is a testament to the value of persistent follow-up on the stories we think we already know.
Judges’ comments: This captivating series demonstrates the success of laser focus on a local story. Cross-referencing thousands of records revealed many of the officers in a tiny town, including the chief, worked lucrative part-time jobs hours away and that half had been fired, demoted, or discharged from their previous jobs. KHOU’s reporting kept the judges hooked. After it ran, the city council shut down the police department and filed charges against seven former officers.
Judges’ comments: This dogged series of reports by Jeremy Finley and the WSMV team exposed how Tennessee officials repeatedly have allowed unlicensed staffers to wear badges, carry guns and falsely present themselves as police officers. Their diligent and direct work made an impact.
Judges’ comments: This well-presented series unearthed brazen corruption by two public officials — a mayor and a police chief — who pulled in other taxpayer-funded salaries while supposedly doing their day jobs. This investigation relied on meticulous documentation and spun their findings into a compelling story that got results.
Finalists:
Judges’ comments: Reporters uncovered a scheme where a government-funded nonprofit entrusted to care for adults deemed incapacitated by the courts was selling their homes for below-market value to companies connected to the Miami city attorney, which were then flipping them for a profit. The series had an immediate impact, with the county launching an investigation into the program and Miami firing the city attorney.
Judges’ comments: This project tackled an important topic, how eastern Kentucky — one of the poorest regions in a state with a high overall poverty level — dealt with the cleanup of a devastating rainstorm and flood. Reporters tracked down leads about problems with debris cleanup contractors, including families that had their home demolished without their permission. The reporting team found that wealthy and powerful contractors paid off workers and secured inflated government contracts. Reporters spent a year poring over thousands of debris tickets and invoices to discover a pattern of abusive contractor behavior, which has since led to multiple lawsuits.
Judges’ comments: The story of a raid on a Kansas newspaper became a national outrage, but KSHB persisted after the national spotlight faded. The station’s relentless pursuit of the truth uncovered lies in the police chief’s affidavit justifying the search warrant, ultimately leading to his suspension. The judges were impressed by the reporter’s push for transparency and fight for public records.
Judges’ comments: "Boxer Pensions on the Ropes" shows how at its best, investigative journalism can both reveal injustices and lead to change. These stories exposed multiple failures by administrators of a pension program envisioned as a safety net for boxers who fought in California. Decades later, not only was the program underfunded, many boxers that were supposed to benefit had no idea it existed. With poignant portraits sprinkled throughout, the series drove home the systemic failure to support these fighters when their careers are over. The judges were also impressed with the tenacity involved in obtaining key information not initially released in public records. The effort ultimately ensured that dozens of checks made it to people who needed them.
Judges’ comments: An impressive effort. The broad survey helped show the breadth of the investigation. This is a system story holding the universities accountable. The story also identified shortfalls, which allow universities to skirt accountability.
Judges’ comments: This story’s combination of complex data journalism and good shoe-leather reporting made this ambitious piece easily stand out. The judges also appreciated the way the reporter presented the data in a clear and transparent way that didn’t distract from the story’s impact. The moving on-the-ground testimonies collected from the real people at the heart of the data tied everything together.
Judge’s comments: The book combined strong investigative journalism with captivating literary journalism, engaging the reader with strong storytelling. The authors included vivid descriptions of the subjects’ lives that helped the reader feel invested in the subjects. The authors also used local journalists to help tell the story and placed us at the center of some of the intense moments, like when a resident admonished her adult daughter for “dropping the f-bomb” as fire loomed outside and they were trying to escape. The book lets journalism do the talking.
Judge’s comments: This documentary provided a raw, rare window into the politics of gang-controlled neighborhoods. The filmmaker’s ability to build trust with reluctant or fearful sources so viewers could hear their insight was a home run. It was old-school street reporting at its best. Judges noted that “The Holly” avoided simplifying the roots of violent crime into good character versus bad character categories. It was well-shot, well-told and memorable.
Judges’ comments: This project revealed shocking new information about the 1989 crime, uncovered powerful audio and turned its investigative attention to the experience of the people of Mission Hill, the African-American neighborhood that was slandered by Charles Stuart and subject to a campaign of abuse by the Boston police department in the months after Stuart murdered his wife and lied to the police saying "a black male" had shot her. That threadbare description was enough to drive Boston city government, the city's white population and — crucially — the news media into a frenzy. In beautifully edited and finely crafted episodes, "Murder in Boston" does more than excellent investigative work and powerful storytelling. It expands the range of what can be considered documentary texts, taking seriously the abuse suffered by the Black men and their families caught in Boston's dragnet and positioning the sensational crime in the history of racism in Boston and beyond. "Murder in Boston" turns its scrutiny not only on the police department and mayor's office, but on the Globe itself and asks probing questions about why so many in the city and the newsroom were willing to run with Charles Stuart's racist lie. It's a fine work of investigative journalism in audio, but it is also more than the sum of its parts, a work of conscience, sociology and reckoning.
Contest entries are screened and judged by IRE members who are working journalists. Work that includes a significant role by any member of the IRE Contest Committee or the IRE Board may not be entered in the contest. Work in which board members did not play a significant editorial role can be entered. First-round screeners were not allowed to review categories in which their news organization could compete.
Serving on the Contest Committee represents a significant sacrifice on the part of the individual contest judge — and often an entire newsroom — that may have done outstanding investigative work.
This year’s contest judges:
To ensure fairness and transparency, some judges were not present during deliberations in specific categories due to potential conflicts of interest. They were:
First-round screeners by category:
Thank you, judges and screeners!
IRE, founded in 1975, is a nonprofit professional organization dedicated to training and supporting journalists who pursue investigative stories. IRE also operates the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR), a joint program with the Missouri School of Journalism.
For questions or concerns about the IRE Awards please contact Doug Meigs, dougm@ire.org.
Over the course of 2023, IRE fellows Halima Gikandi, Leslie Rangel and Kaylee Tornay worked hard and dug deep to share important, investigative reporting with their communities.
They asked questions about abuse allegations, spoke to experts about mental health and analyzed data on child care. We’re proud to share their investigations, part of the Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship program.
Halima Gikandi, of The World, found several allegations of abuse, neglect and misconduct at two Uganda orphanages. Listen to her multi-part series "No place to call home":
“Halima is relentless, tenacious and she reaches for big stories,” Andrew Lehren, Gikandi’s IRE mentor, shared on LinkedIn.
Leslie Rangel, of KTBC’s Good Day Austin, highlighted the mental health crisis for kids in Texas, which ranks last in the nation for access to mental healthcare. Watch “Admitted,” her multi-part series: Texas mental health crisis: Parents and professionals say the state is failing children
“I wanted to be a journalist… to make sure that stories were being told of people who look like me, people who look different and have different lived experiences. And to really just bring more accountability and justice to everyone’s story,” Rangel told us at IRE23 in Orlando.
Kaylee Tornay, of InvestigateWest, reported on lack of child care supply in Oregon. Several counties are considered “severe” child care deserts for infants and toddlers, despite tens of millions dollars of investments. Read her story: Badly Needed Infant And Toddler Care Investments Aren’t Reaching Oregon’s North Coast
“It feels really rewarding to work this long on understanding such a complicated topic, and I’m happy with the result,” Tornay told IRE after her project was completed in November. “And there’s more to come!”
The Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship is intended to prepare and support a journalist of color for a solid career in investigative reporting. Fellows attended IRE conferences, trained at data bootcamps and received mentoring to work on their projects. Learn more about the fellowship here.
IRE is proud to partner with Sunshine Week this year.
National Sunshine Week, celebrated annually in mid-March, is a public awareness campaign to shine a light on the importance of public records and open government. It’s a reminder to journalists and citizens alike — we have a right to know what’s going on in government!
“It’s a cause everyone can support,” David Cuillier, director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project, wrote in The IRE Journal this month.
“As Stanford’s James Hamilton calculated in his ‘Democracy’s Detectives’ book, for every dollar spent on records-based investigative reporting, society reaps $287 in benefits. That is a phenomenal return on investment.”
David Cuillier, "Bright tips for public support, Sunshine Week" (The IRE Journal, Q1 2024)
This year Sunshine Week runs March 10-16, with awareness and training events hosted by organizations in journalism, education, government and other sectors.
Cuillier shared ideas to celebrate Sunshine Week in his FOI Files column in the latest IRE Journal:
You can also attend IRE’s Sunshine Week webinar “25 records to request now” on Thursday, March 14. IRE executive director Diana Fuentes will walk you through a slew of interesting and informative public records in this hour-long session!
And if you’re looking for guidance on public records on a specific beat, read our other FOI Files columns in previous editions of The IRE Journal (IRE members have access to The IRE Journal for free, but nonmembers can also purchase digital versions of these editions):
For more ideas, resources and events, visit sunshineweek.org.
The results are in! Here's the lineup for Lightning Talks at the NICAR24 conference in Baltimore next week, in speaking order:
1. Your own worst enemy: How to organize your work so your future self won't hate you | Justin Myers, Chicago Sun-Times
You might have been here before: trying to pick apart some old analysis or script, wondering in anger what kind of jerk designed it this way — only to realize that jerk was you. I've been in that situation, too, and over the years I've found some ways to be kinder to the ever-present coworker known as My Future Self. I'd like to share some of them.
2. Visuals are data, too! | Brenna Smith, The Baltimore Banner
Too often, visuals are afterthoughts in stories. However, the emergence of visual forensics as a storytelling technique has changed that narrative, putting visuals front and center as key investigative findings. In this Lighting Talks session, Baltimore Banner reporter and former New York Times Visual Investigations fellow Brenna Smith will walk you through how to take an analytical approach to visuals, proving that newsrooms across the country can produce "visual investigations" without a New York Times budget.
3. Datasette Enrichments: Run bulk operations to enrich your data | Simon Willison, Datasette
Datasette Enrichments is a new tool that lets you take a table full of data and "enrich" it in various ways — run geocoders to populate latitudes and longitudes, clean up data with regular expressions and, most excitingly, pipe that data through GPT-4 (or GPT-4 Vision) with a prompt to extract or transform data. I'll demonstrate the feature in action and show how you can use it to process thousands of rows of data in all sorts of interesting ways.
4. Wait…who funds you? Finding out (on deadline) | Kyle Spencer, Reporting Right
Bad faith organizations with anti-democratic aims abound. But sometimes — and that’s by design —they can be hard to identify, which means you may be validating and/or legitimizing a group with radical goals (accidentally). How do you tell your readers who is behind the groups you quote, mention or allude to? This Lightning Talks session will give reporters and editors an easy 5-step process for figuring out what a group/nonprofit/think tank etc. really stands for — and who funds it. On deadline!
5. When charts lie | Todd Wallack, WBUR Boston
Graphics are an essential tool for data journalists. But it's also easy to mislead readers — either by mistake or on purpose. I'll highlight some common ways charts can trick the eye.
6. Expand your sourcing horizon | Jui Sarwate, CBS News and Stations
Learn about the different ways you can reach a variety of sources using X (Twitter) lists, connecting to sources through non-profits and by just cold emailing/calling by the bucket-loads.
7. How to take PDFs from strangers | David Huerta, Freedom of the Press Foundation
I'll be demonstrating the use of Dangerzone, a new tool actively developed by Freedom of the Press Foundation. Dangerzone allows journalists to create a malware-free copy of PDFs that may otherwise contain malicious code.
8. Follow the commodity then follow money: uncovering stories through commodity and supply chain data | Christopher Lambin, Global Witness
There is an array of data that can help investigators map the flow of physical commodities around the globe, including freight tracking, customs records, and satellite imagery. This presentation will explore how we can combine these sources to examine supply chains while investigating environmental harms, human rights abuses and sanctions evasion.
9. How to solve a murder while watching the World Cup | Catherine Rentz, independent journalist
I started building this database during the Women's World Cup (soccer!). It looked at what bad guys did as the evidence implicating them in violent crimes lay untested for decades. The results were frustrating: wrongful incarcerations and preventable violent crimes. Many jurisdictions have collections of cold case evidence like this that have remained "off the books" and untested for decades. Before long, I came across something shocking that led to a break in a 1983 unsolved murder of a college student in Baltimore County.
10. Do you know who runs your elections? | Michael Beckel, Issue One
There are more than 10,000 chief local election officials across the country. Monitoring them all would be a Herculean effort. Monitoring those is a key state or region is feasible — and necessary in understanding election administration challenges in 2024. Issue One's blockbuster analysis of Western states found that 40% of counties in the West have new chief local election officials since 2020 — and that the officials who left these positions took with them more than 1,800 years of combined experience. There is no better time than now to start getting to know your local election officials in your area!
Lightning Talks, a series of 5-minute talks at NICAR selected by the community, has become one of the most popular sessions at the conference. This year, you can attend the big event on Friday, March 8, from 5 - 6:15 p.m. in the Harbor Ballroom.
After Lightning Talks, please stick around to remember Philip Meyer's legacy and help us congratulate the 2023 Philip Meyer Journalism Award winners.
Like many reporters across the U.S., Votebeat Texas reporter Natalia Contreras has been preparing for the 2024 elections since last year.
It’s a momentous election year, to say the least. In Texas specifically, lawmakers filed hundreds of election-related laws during the legislative session. Some states enacted major changes in 2023: New York gave all voters the option to vote by mail; Michigan expanded the list of acceptable photo IDs; Mississippi made it a crime, in many instances, to help another voter return a mail ballot.
In fact, the entire nation saw “an unprecedented volume of state legislation changing the rules governing voting,” according to The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.
It’s a topic that’s been trending up since the 2020 presidential election.
“We've been thinking about this year for about a year already,” Contreras said. “Because new laws, especially in Texas, just really are impacting the election and whether election officials are going to have the resources to pull off the election — and how that's going to impact voters ultimately.”
There are a lot of moving parts to keep track of, presenting challenges for newer and veteran reporters alike. IRE recognizes the importance of accurate and responsible coverage, and we want to be a resource for journalists during this challenging time.
“I really just want to make sure that the entire membership, or as many members as possible, are equipped with the skills they need to do quality elections coverage,” Adam Rhodes, IRE training director said. “It's probably one of the most important elections that a lot of us have seen, and I can't think of a more important time for there to be a robust and well-equipped press to cover elections.”
We asked three experts for their insight on covering the 2024 elections. Here’s some advice from Natalia Contreras of Votebeat Texas, Anna Massoglia of OpenSecrets and Derek Willis of the University of Maryland:
“Making sure that you're relying on information that is vetted is a really important aspect of it, just having that kind of media literacy. I always check two sources when I'm doing something if it's not a primary source, and even sometimes when it is, because there's just so much misinformation and disinformation swirling around on the internet. ... That's part of journalism is asking questions, questioning the legitimacy of things – but make sure you're doing that even when something appears to be very basic.” — Anna Massoglia, OpenSecrets
“Resist the temptation to frame this campaign as a repeat of earlier campaigns. It is easier for us as journalists to understand things if they've happened before. We have some context for it … and campaigns are alike in many ways. But when you do that with campaign finance data, in particular, what happens is that you tend to look for the same kinds of stories that you did two years ago or four years ago.
And what I would encourage folks to do is to not be restricted to that, not be bound by that context, but to actually look for new ways, new stories, new behaviors in the data that would tell readers something interesting and novel about what's going on.” — Derek Willis, Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland
“It just comes down to building relationships with people that run the elections in the town or the state. … Also for the primary election, it’s super important to build relationships with the political parties (since) those people are also going to be running their own elections. ... (Their contact information) should already be on your phone, in your email, today, like right now.” — Natalia Contreras, Votebeat Texas
“No matter what your beat is, understanding at least the basics of money in politics and where to find resources is important. It's something a lot of people don't think about all the time, but it relates to so many different aspects of the world generally, whether you're reporting on things like environment or energy or specific companies, or pretty much anything. There's always a ‘money in politics’ aspect that can come up at some point.
It's something that's really important, in particular, going into an election year. Companies make political contributions, specific individuals (make political contributions), there’s lobbying, there's so many different elements that can come into play and can also add value to your story, whether or not it's focused entirely on money in politics.” — Anna Massoglia, OpenSecrets
“I'm always asking for access to see some part of the process (such as a public meeting, workshop or poll worker training) — whatever the law allows me to be there for. It's so helpful. … It really opens your eyes, just like anything else, and you're able then to provide more context to readers about why something went wrong or what happened.
Because there's so much nuance to elections. Something that can sound really bad, most of the time, isn't. It could be an administrative error, or a human error, most of the time. A voting machine that went down doesn't necessarily mean there's voter fraud, right? There’s, you know, a chain of custody that goes into place. There's always a good explanation, but being able to see it with your own eyes, you're able to explain it better.” — Natalia Contreras, Votebeat Texas
“There's so much out there, I know it can get really overwhelming. … There's so many great experts who are always really happy to walk journalists through things." — Anna Massoglia, OpenSecrets
“The hard thing is if you're a student or if you're trying to break into this (beat) … you're literally physically removed from a lot of the action. You're not with the candidates. You're not out talking to voters all the time. ... But there's a whole set of structures and processes involved in putting on a campaign and putting on an election that I would really encourage students to get involved in.
So for example, understanding how elections are run at a local level is super useful information. And so if students are not covering the campaign, volunteer to actually work an election. (That) will give you a really good education and a really good grounding in how elections actually operate.” — Derek Willis, Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.
IRE is also hosting a series of webinars, workshops and panels throughout the year to train members and help them feel confident with election coverage. We’ve already hosted a few webinars on general election coverage and campaign finance. You can view the video recordings of these sessions, along with panels from past conferences, here.
Here’s what else we have coming up:
More details on these webinars will be announced as soon as they are confirmed.
And of course, we’ll have an entire track of election-related panels and classes at NICAR24 in Baltimore, with sessions on public records, campaign finance data, misinformation, foreign influence and more.
You can also get guidance from the Federal Election Commission, the Committee to Project Journalists, OpenSecrets, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Politifact — just to name a few resources.
Have an idea for an election-related webinar or workshop? Reach out to IRE training director Adam Rhodes. To receive updates on these events, subscribe to Quick Hits, IRE’s biweekly newsletter.
Natalia Contreras covers election administration, election security and voting access for Votebeat Texas, in partnership with the Texas Tribune. She has covered a range of topics as a community journalist including local government, public safety, immigration and social issues.
Anna Massoglia is OpenSecrets’ Editorial and Investigations Manager. Her research also includes "dark money," political ads and foreign influence. She holds degrees in political science and psychology from North Carolina State University and a J.D. from the University of the District of Columbia School of Law.
Derek Willis is a lecturer in data and computational journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, where he teaches classes on data analysis and related topics. He previously covered campaign finance for ProPublica, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Congressional Quarterly.
For more than 30 years, IRE has taught practical newsroom data skills to thousands of journalists in its signature Data Journalism Bootcamp. Reporters, editors, producers and freelancers from around the world have traveled to the University of Missouri campus in Columbia for a weeklong crash course in thinking and working like a data journalist.
“I’ve been teaching IRE bootcamps since 2012 and it is hands-down one of my favorite events,” said IRE senior training director Liz Lucas. “Obviously the technology has changed in the intervening years; we used to teach SQL in Microsoft Access. However, the underlying foundation of finding data, conducting analysis, and using best practices has largely remained the same. That will continue to be true even as we keep up with the development of new and powerful tools.”
To ensure that our bootcamps continue to equip journalists with the skills they need for the next 30 years, IRE is offering some new options for bootcampers in 2024.
In addition to a traditional bootcamp featuring the classic learning sequence of spreadsheets and SQL, you can now also choose a bootcamp that focuses exclusively on Google Sheets, diving deep into analysis, advanced functions for cleaning, joining and other tasks, or one that introduces you to the Python programming language and its many uses in the newsroom.
Each bootcamp still offers the same foundational training on finding and negotiating for data, bulletproofing your analysis and using numbers in stories, and everyone will leave with a solid command of spreadsheets as your primary newsroom data tool.
Register now:
Investigative Reporters and Editors is honored to announce that Maria Hinojosa will give the keynote address for AccessFest 2023, IRE’s virtual conference held October 12-14, 2023. Hinojosa will join in conversation with IRE board member Ana Ley on Thursday, October 12, at 12:15 p.m. Eastern.
Maria Hinojosa is the Pulitzer Prize-winning founder of Futuro Media based in New York City. She has written four books, won multiple awards, and these days her focus is deep accountability investigative journalism.
Ana Ley is a reporter at The New York Times, where she covers the New York City transit beat. Before joining The Times, she was a reporter and then an editor at The Virginian-Pilot. She was a 2021 Livingston Award finalist for her stories on the enduring legacy of racism in Virginia politics.
"We are delighted to have someone of Maria's high standing and caliber participating in our all-virtual conference," IRE executive director Diana Fuentes said. "IRE seeks to continue increasing accessibility to the latest in data and investigative journalism techniques. AccessFest opens the door to sometimes difficult — but essential — conversations for improving inclusiveness and equity in the communities we cover as journalists and in the newsrooms where we work. Maria has led at the forefront of this work, and we are proud to have her for the keynote address at AccessFest 2023."
IRE’s director of diversity and inclusion, Francisco Vara-Orta, said, “for many journalists who are looking to forge their own paths in this industry, Maria’s journey inspires. IRE members will benefit from learning how Maria has wielded her skills to do impactful investigative journalism, start a nonprofit news organization, and how she can critically lean into her identity in a field that, at times, can pressure us to push away from who we are. In turn, she and her team have consistently produced work that is of high quality and amplifies voices we often fail to truly listen to and respect.”
AccessFest will be held online Oct. 12-14. The conference, previously branded as the DBEI Symposium, will expand on IRE’s efforts to provide more accessible training centered on belonging, equity, and inclusion in the newsroom and through better news coverage of inequities in the communities journalists serve. The conference will also feature data classes and more traditional investigative reporting panels that are typically seen at NICAR and IRE conferences. More information, including registration and the full schedule, can be found on IRE’s website.
Investigative Reporters and Editors stands in solidarity with the Marion County Record in defense of the First Amendment after the Kansas newspaper’s office and the home of its 98-year-old co-owner were raided by local law enforcement Aug. 11.
“The IRE Board is deeply disturbed by reports of the raid on the Marion County Record,” said Board President Brian M. Rosenthal, an investigative reporter at The New York Times. “Journalists play a vital role in informing the public and exposing wrongdoing, and this brazen attempt to interfere with that work should outrage everybody who believes in democracy.”
In raiding the office of the Marion County Record and the home of Joan Meyer, police officers and sheriff’s deputies seized all computers, other office equipment and personal cell phones as well as searched through personal documents.
“It was an unconscionable, illegal action by law enforcement against journalists who were just doing their jobs for their community,” said IRE Executive Director Diana Fuentes.
The search warrant was signed by a Marion County magistrate judge, but the Marion County Record reported that the office where the affidavit supporting the warrant is required to be filed did not have a record of it.
The Marion County Record in Marion, Kansas, is a family-owned paper that started in 1869. It will publish this week despite the raid.
“We are absolutely going to print,” publisher Eric Meyer said Sunday. “I don't care if we have to get a rubber stamp and notepads, we are going to print.”
Meyer’s mother, Joan Meyer, died the day after the raid. Eric Meyer said his mother was in good health for her age and believes her death was a result of the stress caused by the raid on her home.
IRE has received emails and calls from members asking what IRE can do to help the newspaper and staff.
Fuentes spoke with Eric Meyer on Sunday, extending condolences on his mother’s death and offering help — people, equipment, starting a legal fund, whatever is necessary. Meyer said he appreciates the offer of help but at this point doesn't need assistance.
“What we need is time,” he said, noting the priority for him and his staff is publishing this week’s edition.
Fuentes let him know IRE is ready to help with whatever the paper and staff might need in the coming weeks, months and in the future. IRE will continue to monitor the situation.
IRE is seeking volunteers for its committees, which work with staff on a wide range of important tasks, from making recommendations for speakers and panels for conferences and workshops to brainstorming ways to better serve members.
To serve, you just need to be a member of IRE and have a passion for helping your colleagues.
If you're interested, fill out this Google form by Friday, July 14.
Any IRE member can serve on a committee. Appointees serve for one year.
The IRE Board is making it a priority to bring in new voices and new perspectives. One of the best ways to ensure your voice and your perspective are heard is to serve on a committee, where the decision-making process begins.
To find out more about how committees work, join us at a Q&A webinar Thursday, July 13, at 5 p.m. EDT. You can learn about the process and what serving on a committee involves. Register here.
Committees include:
If you have questions, please contact IRE President Brian Rosenthal at brian.rosenthal@nytimes.com.
Four incumbents — Cindy Galli of ABC News, Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times, Josh Hinkle of KXAN and Jodie Fleischer of Cox Media Group — along with two newcomers, Ana Ley of The New York Times and Hyuntaek Lee of The Chosun Ilbo in South Korea, were elected to two-year terms for the IRE Board of Directors in election results announced Saturday, June 24, 2023. IRE members also elected two members of the Contest Committee, which judges the IRE Awards.
The board will meet to elect new officers within 30 days.
New members of the Contest Committee are Walter Smith Randolph of Connecticut Public Broadcasting and John Russell of the Indianapolis Business Journal.
Full election results for the Board of Directors:
| Rank | Candidate | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jodie Fleischer | 616 | 75.03 |
| 2 | Brian M . Rosenthal | 613 | 74.67 |
| 3 | Cindy Galli | 581 | 70.77 |
| 4 | Ana Ley | 557 | 67.84 |
| 5 | Josh Hinkle | 533 | 64.92 |
| 6 | Hyuntaek Lee | 399 | 48.60 |
| 7 | Rick Gevers | 371 | 45.19 |
Full election results for the Contest Committee:
| Rank | Candidate | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walter Smith Randolph | 549 | 70.47 |
| 2 | John Russell | 418 | 53.66 |
| 3 | Mark Lagerkvist | 345 | 44.29 |
Looks like you haven't made a choice yet.
