The Center for Public Integrity announced two additions to its board of directors: Jennifer 8. Lee and Matt Thompson.
Journalist and author Lee spent nine years at The New York Times and is the author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food.
Thompson is an editorial product manager at NPR.
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Wendell Potter, best-known for revealing the shady practices of the health insurance industry, will be a senior analyst and columnist for the Center for Public Integrity, writing a twice-weekly column called Health Care Watch.
Potter spent 20 years in public-relations posts for health insurance companies including CIGNA before turning to journalism and exposing the industry’s secrets. He has a new book on the topic, Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans.
CPI executive director William E. Buzenberg said:
Wendell has first-hand knowledge of how the health insurance industry does business. His insight as an analyst will be invaluable to the center as we continue to investigate waste, fraud, and corruption in the American health care system.
The Center for Public Integrity will provide exclusive content to soon-to-be-siblings Newsweek and The Daily Beast under terms of an agreement announced Monday.
The pact kicks off with a story in the Feb. 7 issue of Newsweek about the shortfalls of digital mammography, and Newsweek and The Daily Beast will pay the Center for Public Integrity for exclusive stories going forward, marking the latter’s first pay-for-content deal in more than 20 years.
Accuracy is important in analyzing President Barack Obama‘s State of the Union speech Tuesday night, as well as the Republican response immediately thereafter by Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), so The Huffington Post, the Sunlight Foundation, The Center for Public Integrity, and National Journal will team up to provide real-time fact-checking of the speeches, which can be followed using Sunlight Foundation’s Sunlight Live real-time platform and via Twitter hashtag #SOTUFACTS.
Journalists and policy experts from the respective organizations will team up to quickly identify and point out any inaccuracies in the speeches, focusing on issues including national security, health reform, taxes, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the economy.
The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment issued a challenge to the Center for Public Integrity: Beef up environmental investigative reporting and potentially receive matching funds of up to $500,000 per year through 2015.
The funds will be used to hire additional environmental reporters and develop new funding sources to support environmental reporting projects. The hiring earlier this month of Miami Herald investigations and government editor Ronnie Greene was part of the initiative.
Under terms of the agreement, the challenge grant must be matched by a total of $1.2 million over five years in new donations from sources that have never donated to the center’s environmental reporting work, or from existing donors that increase their support. The center currently devotes 10 percent of its annual budget to investigative reporting on the environment, and the challenge grant will enable it to nearly double the amount of resources it devotes to the topic.
Associated Press veteran Sandy Johnson joined The Center for Public Integrity as managing editor for politics and government, where she will oversee coverage of campaign finance, lobbying, politics, political ethics, and federal agencies.
Johnson had been producing state news content for AARP Bulletin. Prior to that, she spent nearly 30 years at AP, serving as its Washington bureau chief from 1998-2008.
CPI executive director William E. Buzenberg said:
Sandy knows how Washington works and where the backroom deals are made. She has sterling editorial instincts and proven leadership skills, and I’m thrilled to have her joining our expanding newsroom.
The Center for Public Integrity broke in the Treesaver digital publishing platform with Looting the Seas, a report from its International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The Center for Public Integrity announced late last month that it would deploy Treesaver, which allows publishers to format long-form content — including photos, videos, audio, and Web links — for any size screen, including PCs, laptops, iPads, iPhones, Kindles, and smart phones such as Androids or BlackBerrys, with no app download required.
The Center for Public Integrity has a new executive editor: John Solomon, who was elevated from chief digital officer and also served as a journalist in residence last spring.
Solomon will oversee the newsroom, including staff from the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, which will merge operations with the center Jan. 1. He will also continue to helm digital operations, including the redesign of the center’s Web site and the rollout of the Treesaver digital platform.
Prior to joining the center, Solomon worked with The Washington Times, The Washington Post, and The Associated Press.
The Center for Public Integrity will team up with designer Roger Black to launch Treesaver, a digital platform that allows publishers to format long-form content — including photos, videos, audio, and Web links — for any size screen, including PCs, laptops, iPads, iPhones, Kindles, and smart phones such as Androids or BlackBerrys, with no app download required.
The Center for Public Integrity will use Treesaver to publish a major investigative report Nov. 6, and the organization said it will use the platform regularly.
Black worked with software engineer Filipe Fortes on the code and then collaborated with the Center for Public Integrity to develop a platform that would work for long-form, investigative stories.
Integrity is making a comeback in journalism: The Center for Public Integrity added to its flurry of recent announcements the news that it entered into a partnership with American Public Media and its Public Insight Network, which allows journalists to share observations, insights, and experience.
The Center for Public Integrity announced Thursday that it will refocus on digital, aiming to generate more accountability reporting, new audiences, and earned revenues in the digital marketplace, as well as revamping its Web site, expanding its newsroom, and launching a new digital delivery system.
The organization received a $1.7 million grant earlier this month from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Huffington Post Investigative Fund agreed to become part of the Center for Public Integrity, also earlier this month.
ProPublica and the Center for Investigative Reporting are also part of the partnership with APM.
