The Investigative News Network (INN) announced today that it has reached 60 member news organizations with the addition of VTDigger, Catalyst Chicago and 100Reporters.
“With the addition of the three latest member organizations, INN has hit a milestone that not only demonstrates the strength of the nonprofit, non-partisan investigative journalism sector, but also the wide range in types of organizations that comprise our journalistic community," said Kevin Davis, INN CEO & executive director.
100Reporters, which plans to launch this month, focuses on such issues as financial malfeasance and despotism in Africa and around the Globe. VTDigger focuses its reporting on issues faced by communities in Vermont, and Catalyst Chicago focuses on urban education and school improvement.
The news comes on the heels of last week's announcement that Pulitzer Prize-winning ProPublica, one of the largest nonprofit investigative newsrooms in the country, has also come aboard.
“We’re very happy to become part of the INN and to help contribute to a venture that is working to disseminate the high-quality, substantive reporting that the public needs—and wants,” says Lorraine Forte, Editor-in-Chief of Catalyst Chicago.
INN was founded in 2009 to help the increasing number of nonprofit newsrooms to pool resources, promote editorial collaborations and secure the widest distribution in order to have the greatest impact of their reporting.
“Making our stories available to as wide an audience as possible, through newspapers, broadcast outlets, social media and partner sites, is crucial to accomplishing our mission,” says Diana Schemo Executive Editor of 100Reporters. "For [our organization], the opportunity to distribute content through INN's syndication agreement with Thomson Reuters is especially helpful.”
INN is composed of member organizations that produce nonpartisan investigative and public service journalism on a local, regional and national basis. All INN members produce original long-form, ongoing stories and/or data that keep communities informed on the issues that affect them most.
The recent additions to INN further underscore the opportunities for nonprofit news to educate and inform the public on issues that often go underreported by the mainstream press.
"INN's network of online media outlets share the same mission we are committed to -- the dissemination of high quality, in-depth and investigative journalism," says VTDigger’s Editor, Anne Galloway. "We look forward to learning as much as we can about how to collaborate with INN members, so that together we can help fill the gaps in the journalism landscape."