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.
Submissions are now open for Lightning Talks to be featured at #NICAR24 in Baltimore!
Lightning Talks, which take place on the Friday afternoon of the conference, are five-minute talks about a particular tool, skill or piece of advice learned from working on stories. The goal is to teach some practical tips in a fun and entertaining way.
The talks began in 2010 and quickly grew into one of the most popular sessions at IRE’s annual data journalism conference.
The pitch form is open until Feb. 5. After that, members will be able to vote for their favorite ideas, and the 10 talks with the most votes will earn slots at the conference in Baltimore.
All conference attendees can pitch ideas, and we especially encourage women, journalists of color, those from historically marginalized communities, and folks from smaller organizations to submit talks. (If you’ve given a talk in recent years, we encourage you to take a year off to allow for new voices.)
Pitching and voting will be anonymous. In years past, a pitch would be displayed alongside the person who submitted it. In 2019, we saw that anonymity encouraged a more diverse group of people to submit pitches and bring more focus to the content of the talk in the voting process.
What makes a good Lightning Talks pitch? In the spirit of IRE’s conferences, try to focus on teaching your fellow journalists practical skills. Think of something you wish you had known when you started a project or a particular tool that helped you overcome a challenge.
The talks don’t have to be in-depth or super-advanced — remember you’ll only have five minutes, and yes, you will be timed!
If you have questions about Lightning Talks or the submission process, please email conference@ire.org.
This holiday season, consider giving the gift of IRE membership to the journalist(s) in your life.
Whether it’s for a friend, a family member, a colleague, an intern or a student, the gift of IRE membership tells your favorite journo that you believe in them and support their growth.
We make it easy for you to purchase a one-year professional or student membership. If they’re already a member, the gift will renew their membership for a year.
Give a 1-year professional membership for $70: https://bit.ly/IREgiftPro23
Give a 1-year student membership for $25: https://bit.ly/IREgiftStudent23
Here are the top five reasons IRE membership is a fantastic gift.
IRE membership is a gift that keeps giving all year round. The best journalists in the world teach at members-only conferences, webinars and bootcamps. But that’s just the beginning. Members also get free access to thousands of tipsheets, tools like Tableau and Cometdocs, exclusive listservs, a subscription to the IRE Journal and other perks.
We know that “investigative journalists” are not the only ones doing investigative reporting. Our trainings and resources share lessons that all journalists can use – no matter their title, experience level or beat. All journalists are welcome.
IRE helps reporters and editors of all ages to develop core skills, advancing careers with support from our community of journalists. We provide training, networking and mentorship opportunities that change the lives and careers of our members.
In a time of disinformation and distrust in the media, society needs high-quality investigative journalism. Our democracy depends on it. Your gift of IRE membership can help a journalist improve their skills – which directly benefits the public informed by their journalism work.
For nearly 50 years, IRE has been providing journalists with the tools, training and resources they need to excel in their careers. If you’re a member, you’ve seen the impact of our work firsthand. By giving a membership, you help IRE make a difference in someone’s life, the way it did for you.
This is especially valuable for students who are close to finishing a degree – if they’re an IRE member when they graduate, they can continue renewing their membership at the discounted student rate for three years. Those are pivotal years, both professionally and financially, so having all the benefits of IRE during that time makes an enormous impact.
It’s tough out there. We all know someone who has been laid off, furloughed or had to accept a job without the right pay or benefits. The gift of IRE membership enables them to continue developing their skills, and may even reinvigorate their commitment to stay in journalism and fight the good fight.
Don’t have a specific person in mind? Donate to our Support a Journalist fund to help folks who have been unable to join or renew their IRE memberships due to layoffs, furloughs or job terminations.
If you manage a team, don’t get stuck at the last minute buying gift cards for everyone. Giving your team the gift of IRE membership is thoughtful and useful. It’s not only an investment in their professional development, but also in the quality of work they’ll be able to produce in the coming years.
Thank you for helping us advance our mission and support investigative journalism in 2023. Help us finish the year strong by contributing to our end-of-year giving campaign.
With our end-of-year giving campaign underway, join us in reviewing IRE’s many accomplishments to advance investigative journalism in 2023.
We put on three successful conferences, expanded training opportunities, advanced diversity initiatives and so much more. This year’s achievements — with support from members and donors — are a testament to IRE’s unwavering commitment to promoting excellence in investigative reporting, editing and data journalism.
“It's such a joy to reflect on the past year at IRE,” said Lauren Grandestaff, IRE’s Director of Content. “I'm so proud of all that we've accomplished as a small staff of 15. The dedication everyone has to providing thoughtful, inclusive and meaningful training, resources and support to journalists around the world gives me hope for 2024. We know there is still plenty of work to be done, and we're excited to continue bringing IRE to your cities, newsrooms, colleges and universities, and screens.“
IRE hosted NICAR23 (or “data prom,” as our training director Adam Rhodes calls it), in Nashville, Tennessee.
At IRE23, journalists from around the world came together for an engaging, four-day conference in Orlando, Florida. The annual IRE Awards ceremony allowed us to celebrate the best investigative journalism of 2022, in which our members shined the light of truth on hospitals, school districts, government institutions and more.
We also hosted the first AccessFest — our fully virtual fall conference previously known as the DBEI Symposium.
And thanks to the generous support of our sponsors and benefactors, we were able to help more than 150 journalists, students and educators attend our events at no cost this year.
We’re looking forward to NICAR24, March 7-10 in Baltimore, Maryland, and IRE24, June 20-23 in Anaheim, California! Stay tuned for AccessFest24 dates and registration details.
2023 was also a big year for IRE as an organization. We were thrilled to make changes and announce new initiatives to continue advancing our mission.
At the IRE annual conference, we renamed our prestigious Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship in honor of the late Chauncey Bailey, a dedicated, community-driven journalist at The Oakland Post. Bailey was killed in 2007 in retaliation for his reporting.
On the data journalism side, we announced a major update to our signature Data Journalism Bootcamps. Beginning in 2024, we are offering a bootcamp focusing exclusively on Google Sheets and another focusing on the Python programming language.
As we plan for elections across the country in 2024, we kicked off a training series dedicated to election coverage. In November, we hosted “2024 Elections - where to begin?” Coming up in December is “Campaign Finance 101,” taught by Anna Massoglia of OpenSecrets and free for IRE members. Keep an eye out for more election-focused training opportunities and special monthly webinars free to IRE members throughout 2024!
Have an idea for us? Please reach out — we'd love to hear from you!
The field of investigative journalism is stronger when we work together. In 2023, we were proud to continue fostering partnerships with like-minded organizations and journalism associations.
IRE staff attended 12 conferences this year, including the AAJA, NAHJ and NABJ conferences, the National Native Media Conference in Winnipeg, Canada, and the Global Investigative Journalism Network conference in Gothenburg, Sweden.
We also worked with organizations such as the Education Writers Association, Trans Journalists Association and Trusting News (and many more!) to develop sessions and programming for our events.
For example, at IRE23, we worked with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to develop sessions on public records and media law. At AccessFest23, we hosted a compelling session with the National Center on Disability and Journalism on how newsrooms can better support journalists with disabilities.
The Indigenous Journalist Association and ICT News were some of the partners who contributed their expertise to the latest IRE Journal, a special edition in Indigenous news which we made available free to the public.
We believe this exchange of ideas and perspectives is crucial — both for our growth as an organization and for our members to excel in and out of their newsrooms.
As we look ahead to 2024, we are hopeful for the state of investigative journalism and inspired by our members’ dedication to helping us all live in a better, more informed world. As our executive director Diana Fuentes wrote in her introduction of the latest IRE Journal:
“At its best, journalism holds power accountable. It sheds light into dark places where injustice is trying to drag us down. Don’t give up!”
IRE was founded to bring journalists together to share skills and find community. This field comes with daunting challenges, but its impact is invaluable. We pledge to do our part by remaining steadfast in our commitment to improving the quality of journalism and upholding democracy.
All of this is possible with your help. Your support of IRE — whether it's through donations, your membership, event registration or volunteering your time and ideas — helps journalists across the world develop the skills and relationships they need to produce better investigative journalism.
Thank you for helping us provide training, resources and a community of support to investigative journalists in 2023!
Torsheta Jackson of Mississippi Free Press, Clavel Rangel, an independent journalist, and Morgan Young from WFAA-TV, Dallas, will serve as IRE's 2024 Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellows.
This yearlong fellowship is designed to increase the range of backgrounds, experiences and interests within the field of investigative journalism, where diverse perspectives are critically important. The fellowship program is open to U.S. journalists of color with at least three years of post-college work experience.
Torsheta Jackson, based in Richmond, Miss., is Mississippi Free Press' award-winning education-equity reporter in partnership with Report for America. Before joining the newsroom full time, Jackson spent 19 years as an educator and coach and 12 years as a freelance journalist. She received her B.A. from the University of Southern Mississippi and her M.A. from the University of Mississippi.
Jackson's project will focus on educational services at county juvenile detention centers in Mississippi. The Mississippi Code of 1972 requires these facilities to provide educational services, and the Mississippi Department of Education has set standards for the provision of these services. However, not much is known about how academic achievement in these centers compares to schools, and sources say there is too little actual oversight.
Clavel Rangel is an independent journalist based in Miami and co-founder of the Network of Journalists from the Venezuelan Amazon. She has worked at El Tiempo Latino as senior editor and on the Arepita newsletter as editorial director. She is a 2018 International Visitor Leadership Fellow through the Murrow Program for Journalists, a 2019 Open Society Fellow, and a Resilience Fund Fellow. In 2023, she joined the Third Cohort of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network.
Rangel’s project will center on the Darién Gap journey, its emotional impact on migrant children in the United States and how the government is addressing their psychological needs.
Morgan Young is an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter and anchor for WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri. Morgan has received multiple Emmy Awards, Associated Press Awards, Alabama Broadcaster Association Awards and a Gracie Allen Award for her work.
Young's project will be a deep dive into the policing policies that dictate how officers and investigators respond to reports of "runaway" children and teens. She will examine the impact those policies have on response times, outcomes for the children and the disproportionate impact these policies have on missing children of color.
Jackson, Rangel and Young were selected for the fellowship based on the projects they pitched in their applications. They will continue in their current professional roles while receiving a suite of IRE resources and support. These include training at an IRE data journalism bootcamp and both annual conferences, and they will receive IRE data services. Most importantly, they will each receive a mentor network of IRE members who will guide them through their year-long projects.
This fellowship was initially made possible thanks to generous donations from IRE members Meghan Hoyer, Megan Luther, Mike Tahani and Mike Gruss. Additional funding was provided by the IRE community and company sponsors ABC News, CNN, ESPN, Gray Television and Hearst Foundations. Almost $120,000 has been raised to support the program. The program was renamed for Chauncey Bailey in 2023.
Applications for the 2025 IRE Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship will be available in October 2024.
If you’d like to donate to the Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship, visit the IRE donation page and indicate your contribution is for the JOC fellowship.
If you are interested in participating in IRE training events and need financial assistance to attend, check out our fellowships and scholarships.
The life of Phil Meyer, a giant in data journalism and an IRE legend, will be celebrated Saturday, Dec. 2, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
A funeral service will be held at Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill at 10:30 a.m., followed by a reception and celebration.
Meyer died Saturday, Nov. 4, at home in Carrboro, North Carolina, surrounded by family.
He was 93.
Meyer was professor emeritus and former Knight Chair of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“He maintained his humor, grace and mild-mannered reporter’s sense of curiosity and calm till the end,” said Sarah Meyer, one of his daughters.
Meyer died of complications of Parkinson’s disease. He recently had a happy celebration of his 93rd birthday with his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, family members said.
The professor and journalist pioneered the use of social science methods to improve reporting and authored numerous books, including the seminal “Precision Journalism.” Earlier this year, IRE celebrated the 50th anniversary of the book at NICAR23 in Nashville.
“Phil was a pioneer in data journalism, who brought higher standards to reporting through data analysis and his own brilliant conceptual thinking,” said Brant Houston, a longtime friend and himself an author of textbooks and the Knight Chair of Investigative Journalism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
“He instructed and inspired students and journalists throughout the world and leaves a deep legacy in the profession.”
Meyer was one of the early proponents of using data analysis for investigative journalism. In a groundbreaking story, he analyzed survey research about the 1967 deadly riot in Detroit to show that college-educated people were just as likely as high school dropouts to have participated in the riot.
His work on the riot helped earn the Detroit Free Press a Pulitzer Prize for local spot news reporting.
Meyer has received numerous awards over the years, and one of journalism’s highest honors is named after him.
IRE’s global Philip Meyer Journalism Award, established in 2005, recognizes the best journalism that uses the social science research methods pioneered by Meyer.
“Phil Meyer embodied all that makes the investigative journalism community great — brilliance, creativity, thoroughness and generosity,” said IRE President Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times. “We will miss him, but we know that his legacy lives on in countless IRE Members and other data journalists around the world.”
Meyer was widely recognized as a consummate educator, who enjoyed sharing his passion for numbers and making things better for fellow journalists the world over, including at IRE bootcamps about statistics and mapping.
“He will be remembered for his kindness and patience in his teaching along with a wry sense of humor that made new methods and ways of thinking much easier to learn,” Houston said.
That even-tempered nature was a hallmark of Meyer’s personality, his colleagues said.
“He was very precise and patient,” said Jennifer LaFleur, veteran journalist and now assistant professor of data journalism at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. LaFleur met Meyer when she was a trainer at IRE, studying and working with him. “He was able to seamlessly weave stories of his work in newspapers and his work doing analysis into something we were trying to learn that was much harder, which I think made it a lot easier to learn,” LaFleur said.
Prior to entering academia in 1981, Meyer was a reporter for 26 years, including stints at the Miami Herald, Detroit Free Press and the Akron Beacon Journal.
Meyer is survived by his daughters Kathy (Steve) Lucente, Melissa (the late Thal Massey Jr.) Meyer and Sarah (Teddy Salazar) Meyer and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Sue Quail Meyer, and daughter Caroline Dalton Meyer.
To honor Meyer, contributions may be made to The Fund for PhD Education and Enhancement in memory of Phil Meyer by sending to UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, Attention Danita Morgan; CB#3365, UNC Chapel Hill; Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3365.
Contributions also may be made to Investigative Reporters and Editors at www.ire.org/donate or to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press at www.rcfp.org. Put "Phil Meyer" in the tribute line.
Rick Gevers, a longtime IRE member and broadcast journalism industry veteran, has joined the Board of Directors.
Gevers, who ran for the Board in the last election and was the highest vote recipient who was not elected, will fill the remainder of the term of Simone Weichselbaum of NBC News, who recently stepped down for medical reasons.
According to the IRE bylaws, when there is a vacancy, the Board may fill it with the next highest vote recipient at the last previous election.
Gevers lives in Indianapolis. He began his board service on Nov. 1 and will serve until the next election, which will take place at the annual IRE Conference in June 2024.
With the 2024 elections right around the corner, IRE is offering a new series of webinars, workshops, panels and hands-on classes to help equip journalists to better cover local, state and federal elections.
Join us for "2024 Elections - Where to begin?" at 1 p.m. ET on November 3 to kick off this series. Hear five experienced journalists from diverse backgrounds and platforms talk about where to begin covering the elections:
This free webinar is only for IRE members. If you are a member, you can register here. If you’d like to become an IRE member, join here.
In the coming year, IRE will gather experienced journalists to lead sessions on how to background political candidates, develop story ideas for local elections, analyze campaign finance data, investigate voting rights violations and more. Many of these workshops will be free to IRE members. Sign up for IRE’s biweekly newsletter, Quick Hits, to learn about what’s coming up next in this series.
"Informed citizens are essential to democracy, and journalists are essential to ensuring citizens are informed," said IRE Executive Director Diana Fuentes. "IRE is committed to providing journalists across the United States with accessible, affordable training and the tools they need to cover the volatile 2024 elections. It's tough but exciting work, and we're here to help."
IRE successfully hosted the first-ever AccessFest, a virtual-by-design conference with an emphasis on DBEI programming.
Over the course of two-and-a-half days, our expert panelists led important conversations about diversifying newsrooms, building trust in communities, including more voices in coverage and becoming stronger advocates for ourselves as journalists.
And our members showed up engaged and ready to learn.
More than 300 people attended the virtual conference, which offered both DBEI programming and the traditional IRE conference training, Lauren Grandestaff, IRE’s director of content, said.
IRE members can access AccessFest23 session recordings here.
"We’re so excited to see the evolution and expansion of AccessFest," Grandestaff said. "Although it started as a smaller symposium (the DBEI Symposium) a few years ago, our rebranded fall virtual conference has morphed into IRE fulfilling the need for more accessible training — not only in diversity and inclusion spaces, but also in the investigative and data work that we’re so well-known for."
At IRE, we believe this training is crucial in our industry. Journalists need a critical mix of traditional technical skills and cultural competency awareness to truly make an impact, said Francisco Vara-Orta, IRE’s director of diversity and inclusion.
"We are in an era of journalism where many of our colleagues are seeking a sense of belonging in the industry," Vara-Orta said. "They are examining the role identity plays in work, prompted by heightened global discourse in politics and pop culture, and they are seeking ways to strengthen the work they do to meet this moment."
Maria Hinojosa, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and founder of Futuro Media, touched on these topics and shared her own story of resilience in the conference’s keynote conversation.
In a session called "Finding your voice," Jill Geisler taught attendees how to speak up on issues. In another session, panelists came together to discuss the nuances of covering stories about mixed race populations — and their own experiences of being mixed race in the industry. And with growing numbers of media workers facing anxiety, depression and burnout, Mar Cabra lent an ear and shared tips to improve mental health culture in newsrooms.
In the same spirit, we made an effort to collaborate with partner organizations to offer members informative, valuable and culturally relevant programming. We worked with the National Center on Disability and Journalism, Trans Journalists Association, Education Writers Association, Indigenous Journalist Association, Trusting News and other partners to organize sessions.
IRE members can access AccessFest23 session recordings here.
As a benefit to non-members in the journalism industry, we also opened up one special session to the general public for free online: "Examine staff diversity and bias as a tool for more nuanced coverage," hosted by Lynn Walsh, of Trusting News, and Letrell Crittendon, of American Press Institute.
This panel created important dialogue about who is represented in newsroom coverage (and staff) and who is left out. The recording of this session is available here:
Lynn Walsh of Trusting News and Letrell Crittendon of American Press Institute present "Examine staff diversity and bias as a tool for more nuanced coverage," at AccessFest23.
Better representation may mean looking locally for talent and collaborating with other newsrooms, Crittendon said. If you’re looking for new voices in coverage, maybe reporters should get a day to go out and meet people in the community — without the pressure of producing a story, Walsh recommended.
"By holding each other accountable, by listening to each other…we can have more fair, nuanced and better news coverage," Walsh said.
In addition to better news coverage and representation, we also hoped to emphasize accessibility at this conference. The virtual nature allowed us to welcome people from around the country (and the world!) and include folks who may have wanted to skip the travel and accommodations that come with attending an in-person event.
Though it was our first official AccessFest, this conference is just one part of our broader mission to expand investigative training resources to people traditionally underrepresented in the field. In line with this goal, we launched IRE Guides at AccessFest23. Guides is an IRE website offering free online resources, educational materials and more. It’s open to anyone interested in investigative journalism. https://guides.ire.org
Here’s what some of our attendees had to say:
After an exciting first year, we hope AccessFest will reach even more people and expand access to investigative journalism in the years to come.
"We’ve learned so much in the last few years with the DBEI Symposium and now AccessFest," Grandestaff said. "We look forward to the opportunity to grow with the needs of the industry and our membership."
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:
The Society of Professional Journalists’ 2023 Convention in Las Vegas, Sept. 28-30 will offer a variety of opportunities for journalists to advance their investigative and data reporting skills.
IRE Executive Director Diana Fuentes will attend the conference to present “Prying Loose Public Records” from 2:45 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Sept. 29. Fuentes will offer tips on writing public records requests and overcoming common roadblocks in receiving records.
“Public records requests are a strong foundation of investigative journalism and one of the many ways journalists dig for information — regardless of beat, outlet or medium,” Fuentes said. “I’m looking forward to sharing some of the many strategies for successfully requesting public records, fighting exorbitant fees and overcoming other obstacles. I anticipate a valuable and practical discussion.”
SPJ23 will also feature colleagues of late investigative reporter and IRE member Jeff German from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 28. In “The Review-Journal's Fight for Jeff German's Sources,” panelists will discuss their newsroom’s work to investigate his killing and protect his anonymous sources.
At IRE23 in Orlando this past summer, IRE posthumously honored German with the Don Bolles Medal. 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.
German’s colleagues provided the keynote address at IRE23, and they also presented at IRE’s inaugural Jeff German Investigative Workshop in the spring of 2023. Their ongoing effort to safeguard sources in the aftermath of German’s tragic killing remains a work in progress that SPJ23 attendees will not want to miss.
Several other training opportunities at SPJ23 of interest to IRE members include sessions on Google tools in reporting, open records laws, visualization and narrative in data-driven stories, and following the money in sports coverage. More information about the SPJ23 conference and registration is available on the SPJ website.
IRE is proud to partner with SPJ and other news organizations. Read more about our 2023 collaborations on the IRE news blog.
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