Feb. 24, 2010, Nieman Journalism Lab — This summer the Associated Press made a surprise announcement at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Baltimore. As part of a six-month pilot project, the wire service was going to begin distributing content from four top nonprofit news outlets: ProPublica, Center for Public Integrity, Center for Investigative Reporting, and the Investigative Reporting Workshop. It looked like a win all around: Newspapers could run in-depth content from well respected outlets, and nonprofits could broaden their audience.
Laura Mcgann
Feb. 4, 2010, Nieman Journalism Lab — On the morning of my second-to-last day as the editor of The Washington Independent, I was surprisingly nervous waiting for my boss to walk across the newsroom to meet me for what I pitched to him as an “exit interview” for my new job at the Nieman Journalism Lab. At 10:33 a.m. an email popped into my inbox titled, “I’m giving David the ‘wrap it up’ signal”; it was from my boss’ secretary, who sat just out of my view in our D.C. office. David S. Bennahum, CEO of the nonprofit Center for Independent Media, which publishes TWI and five other news sites around the country, is on the phone talking with a potential donor about his recent coup: a $352,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to launch his seventh news website, The Florida Independent, with two local foundations.
