Friday 17 July 2009

£2 million boost for investigative reporting.

Here's some good news to counter all the cuts. Press Gazette reports today that a major new journalism project aimed at supporting investigative reporting has secured £2m in start-up funding.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism will launch in London in the coming months and claims to be the first organisation of its kind in the UK dedicated to independent public interest journalism.
Press Gazette says that the Bureau will hire a managing editor, two or three reporters and will also fund freelance investigators and researchers. Its aim is to dig out - and then sell - the stories that many news organisations say they can no longer afford to cover in-house.
The not-for-profit bureau has been given the go-ahead as a result of a single donor - the Potter Foundation - which has made the £2m grant.
The foundation is run by David Potter, who made his fortune as the founder, chief executive and now chairman of hand-held computer manufacturer Psion, and his wife Elaine - a former Sunday Times journalist who now chairs the board of the Centre for Investigative Journalism.
Today's announcement comes a month after a group of investigative journalists joined forces to launch a campaign to raise funds for the future of investigative journalism.
Press Gazette reports that one of the journalists behind the campaign, Stephen Grey, will be acting editor of the new bureau as it prepares for launch, until a permanent managing editor is appointed.

1 comment:

Rich Simcox said...

This is welcome news and hopefully they'll be able to keep it going. Old-fashioned legwork, of the kind practised recently by Heather Brooke and Nick Davies among others, shows the value and public good of journalism. This is of course why the cuts being meted out elsewhere in the media industry and are so gutting and short-sighted.