The conventional wisdom is that the challenging financial state of newspapers will irrevocably harm journalism's capacity to investigate. Historically newspapers have led the craft in enterprise work; as goes they, so goes enterprise, it is thought.
But Paul Steiger, the former Wall Street Journal executive now running the ProPublica non-profit fund for investigative journalism, offers a different argument in a post for McKinsey.
Steiger suggests that a trade-off is occurring --- a loss of some firepower in some places, a gain in others --- and that new models of financing high-quality investigation is emerging.
Among other things, Steiger believes his organization can empower other journalists by providing them tools like databases to explore on their own. He thinks there are many examples surfacing of strong public-minded journalists who simply need other mechanisms to help them excel.
But Paul Steiger, the former Wall Street Journal executive now running the ProPublica non-profit fund for investigative journalism, offers a different argument in a post for McKinsey.
Steiger suggests that a trade-off is occurring --- a loss of some firepower in some places, a gain in others --- and that new models of financing high-quality investigation is emerging.
Among other things, Steiger believes his organization can empower other journalists by providing them tools like databases to explore on their own. He thinks there are many examples surfacing of strong public-minded journalists who simply need other mechanisms to help them excel.
