Freelance Investigative Reporters & Editors (FIRE) is pleased to share the latest success from the legal services program supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies—an Esquire magazine investigation on police accountability
Rowan Moore Gerety’s 18-month investigation “Who Writes the Rules for Cops?” uncovers the role of a private company, Lexipol, in outfitting hundreds of police departments with policy manuals to reduce liability for the police, including for alleged misconduct.
Knowing that he was reporting on a litigious subject, Moore Gerety was concerned that his contract did not provide him liability protections in case the article prompted a lawsuit.
FIRE’s attorneys helped him negotiate that legal protection—and a key intellectual property clause. With Esquire’s support, Moore Gerety was able to deliver the story in February, the fifth released under the program.
But that’s just one story—and freelancing will never become more sustainable without industry-wide tools and standards for working with freelancers, Moore Gerety said, citing the free Contract Template and Contract Principles. “I am so glad FIRE is a part of the landscape.”
"I would love to see a boilerplate template that a freelancer could send an outlet, rather than the other way around." —Print and radio reporter and photojournalist, former newspaper, radio and wire staffer, from FIRE's 2015 freelancer survey
After additional legal and insurance research, FIRE has modified its signature tool for freelancers and outlets negotiating a mutually acceptable story contract.
The FIRE Contract Template, designed by former Bloomberg News Global Media Counsel Charles Glasser, now facilitates an outlet’s indemnification of reporters via more explicit reference to an outlet’s insurance, in a change marked here in bold:
5. a)….shall be solely responsible for the costs of representation, filing fees, or other associated legal costs including but not limited to claimed damages, for the purpose of which Reporter would be deemed insured under Outlet’s policy;
The change, made after extensive additional research into contracts and media insurance, will be elaborated in a series of tip sheets set for release soon.
Veteran reporter Rachel Layne used FIRE's legal assistance to release her environmental story
Service upgrade for freelancers
FIRE is pleased to highlight a year of expansion and promise facilitated by a generous grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
With the Newmark support, FIRE launched a suite of legal services and tools in 2021, augmenting our traditional grants and reporting services:
*) FIRE's Legal Consultancy has helped more than a dozen freelancers like Rachel Layne (right) remove the "chilling effect" of legal exposure, as she put it.
*) the FIRE Contract Templatehas been requested by dozens of freelancers and outlets as a way to revise or replace untenable contracts.
*) the FIRE Contract Principles—industry standards for fair and viable treatment of freelancers by publishers, broadcasters, and funders—is now in circulation through multiple networks. More soon!
*) a round of FIRE fact sheets, which will address the tough insurance and liability questions raised at our September roundtable on indemnification, is under vetting for release next month—with huge potential educational benefit for the field.
FIRE's new legal services, supported this year with a generous grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies, has helped more than a dozen reporters safely advance sensitive investigations, including the four releases below. Additional updates soon.
By Jason Buch: A money-laundering investigation highlightingthe role of U.S. banks, for the Texas Observer
Unearthing Water Issues
By Rachel Layne: Breaking new ground on the implications of a massive aquifer drawdown near the Great Lakes, for the trade publication Water and Wastes Digest
A November exposé of cross-border financial corruption has capped FIRE's most innovative year since our founding in 2007.
Jason Buch's investigation for the Texas Observer, pictured here, is the latest story facilitated by FIRE's contract-related legal assistance, made possible this year by a generous grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
Buch, who with FIRE's help was able to renegotiate his contract and protect himself from liability, was one of more than a dozen reporters who safely advanced sensitive investigations via FIRE's unique Legal Consultancy.
Three other stories have been published. Several more, including two major magazine stories, are on the way. And in an unexpected development, a number of publishers have also used the service to reform their contracts and learn more about media insurance.
The Legal Consultancy gives unprecedented pro bono access to top lawyers to facilitate secure investigations. An associated tool, a FIRE Contract Template released in late September, has also been requested by dozens of freelancers and outlets alike.
In a democracy, freelancers need the tools to confidently pursue investigations for the public.
Monika Bauerlein, CEO of Mother Jones, spoke at FIRE's September 28 panel.
Collective solutions on the horizon
What a panel!
Thanks to four trenchant speakers and roughly 130 registrants for “Freelance Contracts: a Public-interest Roundtable," FIRE now has fresh insights and tools to solve one of the field's most important problems—legal vulnerabilities for freelance investigative reporters.
It also has a new mandate to do so. The diverse audience for the September 28 event—editors, publishers/broadcasters, funders, and of course freelancers—identified an urgent need to solve liability and other contractual issues in the field.
Their energy has bolstered FIRE's conviction that this work matters—and is possible.
Please stay tuned as we sort through the torrent of questions and comments generated at the event, which will be instrumental in shaping next steps for the initiative.
For now, here are the four top takeways of the panel:
Protecting freelancers with full indemnification is not only good for journalism and the public interest, but also is smart business and legal strategy.
Freelancers are hungry for model contract language and expertise to aid their negotiations.
Outlets are often just as hungry to help—and often unaware of how much their current contracts paralyze freelancers, or how easily they can be remedied.
Freelancers want to help publishers and broadcasters elevate their standards for fair & equitable treatment of freelancers—something FIRE has already helped happen.
What you can do:
Watch the recording by filling out this quick form, which helps us understand more about the landscape of legal liabilities for freelancers.
Share this news far & wide to advance this conversation as much as possible through the industry.
Read the newly unveiled FIRE Contract Principles and let us know any candidates for signing—outlets or funders you think already practice this pledge.
Check out the new FIRE Contract Template, free to download with just a quick form to request access.
Be in touch, whatever your role in journalism, with any questions, ideas about how we can work together, or related resources to recommend.
And of course, please refer any freelancers who might need contractual assistance to FIRE’s pro bono Legal Consultancy.
All these initiatives and the event itself, made possible by a generous grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies, serve to expand FIRE's flagship gratis services: the two-hour Reporting Consultancy, and the wrap-around Virtual Newsroom, with up to $12,500 in grant funding.
To help support all of FIRE’s offerings, please consider making a donation.
Thanks and best wishes,
Hilary Niles
FIRE Freelance Program Coordinator
P.S. FIRE is now on Twitter! Give us a follow at @FIREnewsroom, and thanks :)
Contract template and principles to debut at Sept. 28 panel
As reported previously, below, FIRE’s new Legal Consultancy has helped freelancers like Alexandria Bordas negotiate legal protection to enable their investigations.
But individual intervention can only go so far. Most arrangements happen in isolation, beyond FIRE's direct-service capacity.
To help protect more stories, FIRE will be introducing a public version of our groundbreaking FIRE Contract Template for investigative freelancers—and the FIRE Contract Principles based on it.
Both documents should help all parties advance a new generation of investigative agreements. Both will be released at our panel next week.
Again, please join Bordas, Mother Jones CEO Monika Bauerlein, and former Bloomberg News Global Media Counsel Charles Glasser, for “Freelance Contracts: a Public-interest Roundtable,” next Tuesday, September 28, 2021, at 4pm ET.
We are expecting a spirited discussion geared to practical solutions. To register for the event, visit here.
FIRE helped Alexandria Bordas secure liability protections to safely release her two-year investigation. Bordas will speak at a FIRE panel on freelancer liability.
A public-interest discussion
FIRE's upcoming online panel, detailed below, will help unaffiliated reporters contribute sensitive investigations in the public interest.
Deep into her two-year exposé of alleged sexual misconduct in California’s wine country, freelancer Alexandria Bordas realized that there was one thing she hadn’t investigated—her own legal liability.
Bordas had a standard indemnity clause in her contract. Like several other reporters this year with the same problem, she applied to FIRE's Legal Assistance program.
The pro bono service, funded by a generous grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies, helped Bordas secure indemnification from her publisher on the sexual-assault exposé.
"Had the [San Francisco] Chronicle not ultimately found a solution to legally protect me, I would have had no choice but to pull the story and walk away," Bordas said. "I couldn't have done it without FIRE."
In the end, her co-reported investigation dominated the Chronicle's front page throughout April.
FIRE is pleased to invite you to join Bordas, Mother Jones CEO Monika Bauerlein, and former Bloomberg News Global Media Counsel Charles Glasser, for a virtual roundtable on solving freelancer liability on September 28, 2021.
To register for the event, visit here. To learn more about the Bordas story and other similar success stories, visit here.
After protecting its freelancer, the San Francisco Chronicle was able to expose sexual-assault accusations against a rising political star in the region.
The tense account of a freelancer's
bid for legal protection
When freelancer Alexandria Bordas realized she had to shoulder all the legal liability for an investigation commissioned by the San Francisco Chronicle, she wrote to FIRE "on the verge of pulling this story."
FIRE's new Legal Consultancy quickly helped Bordas reach an agreement to safely publish her sexual-assault exposé. In the end, the story made waves on the Chronicle's front page for weeks. But that outcome was never a given, as detailed in the full backstory here.
The case for investigative contracts that bolster democracy
The public needs accountability journalism and investigative freelancers are increasingly crucial to accountability journalism. But to realize their full public-interest potential, freelancers require legal protection, just as staff reporters do.
That is the simple truth behind a series of recent FIRE measures. It's also the basis for a key philanthropic emphasis in the field: No funder or facilitator should support a story that leaves its freelance reporter vulnerable. Every FIRE counterpart—and all of our funders—should ensure that any freelancer we support is indemnified.
Grounded in expertise in the practice of insurance and media law, FIRE’s case is straightforward—and makes the best business sense for outlets.
FIRE works to strengthen freelance investigations by providing contract-related legal assistance, especially on liability and indemnification. We also support our ally, the ACOS alliance (A Culture of Safety alliance), in their work promoting the physical safety of freelance reporters.
ACOS is announcing a limited number of FREE spots for US based freelance journalists in VICE Media’s two upcoming in-house safety training courses in New York City, on July 12-13 or July 15-15.
More info and to apply via the ACOS Alliance and FFR by Friday 2, July: https://bit.ly/3cYlE46
Earlier this month, FIRE announced a $75,000 grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies to advance FIRE’s new contract-related legal assistance.
Within days, two longtime FIRE contributors pledged $55,000.
The gifts, especially the $50,000, from the anonymous donor who originally seeded FIRE, are intended as challenge grants. Please donate if you can!
The $130,000 infusion has already allowed FIRE to
expand our pilot project, extend today’s deadline for FIRE’s contract-related legal services, and accept applications indefinitely by rolling deadlines, effective today
award five Virtual Newsroom grants, up to $12,500 each, to eligible reporters accepted for the legal services by June 1, 2021
reactivate the legal-services survey, which has proved invaluable in designing the service. Any reporters may take the 5-7-minute survey.
The legal service is anonymous and confidential. Eligible reporters don’t need a contract in hand. For an investigation, you may apply for FIRE's legal assistance, reporting assistance—or both services. You may also receive support from another journalism organization.
You may apply at any time. But to qualify for the June 1 selection deadline and the $12,500 grants, we advise you to submit an inquiry no later than May 15 for the contract-related legal assistance. We do our best to communicate decisions within two weeks.
We look forward to helping freelancers safely advance their investigations in the public interest.
A $75,000 gift from Craig Newmark Philanthropies will foster contract-related legal assistance and education.
Today Freelance Investigative Reporters and Editors (FIRE) is pleased to announce a generous gift from Craig Newmark Philanthropies to strengthen the ability of freelance reporters to produce investigations in the public-interest.
The gift, a $75,000 grant for FIRE’s contract-related legal assistance, significantly bolsters FIRE’s role as a service bureau for freelance investigative reporters, primarily by enabling freelancer access to First Amendment attorneys for pro bono counsel on rights, indemnification, insurance, and other issues.
This legal service, the only program of its kind that we know of, helps to demystify contract provisions and media insurance so reporters can protect themselves enough to take on accountability stories, something the new service has already enabled.
According to anecdotal evidence, publishers and broadcasters are increasingly shifting legal exposure onto freelancers, hindering their ability to pursue sensitive investigations. The grant seeks to reverse that trend.
“A trustworthy press is the immune system of democracy,” Newmark said. “We rely on that to know how to protect our country, and we need to protect journalists as they protect us.”
Newmark, founder of craigslist, has contributed nearly $200 million to efforts aimed at supporting trustworthy journalism, combating disinformation, and countering online harassment. His support for journalism is a central focus of a diverse network of grantees he has funded through Craig Newmark Philanthropies (craignewmarkphilanthropies.org).
“We need to protect journalists as they protect us.”
The Newmark grant enables FIRE not only to expand the contract-based legal service, but also to translate advice into tipsheets, webinars, and other educational material and events—for reporters, publishers, and broadcasters alike.
The activity, in turn, advances FIRE’s wider groundbreaking legal-protection initiative, which also includes an innovative boilerplate contract to protect freelance reporters; and a policy of supporting only stories for which the outlet protects the reporters.
FIRE, operating in various forms since 2007, develops the capacity of freelance investigative journalists from diverse backgrounds to produce investigations in the public interest—historically by providing grants and editorial services, now also by key legal education for the field.
“Craig Newmark Philanthropies is shoring up one of journalism’s most vulnerable constituencies, and one of the most important,” said FIRE director Laird Townsend. “This grant will foster confidence to propose and complete sensitive investigations—exactly the stories the public needs the most, and the stories that need the most protection. FIRE is deeply grateful for the support.”
A FIRE-supported story released in The New Yorker's March 8 print edition has become the first success of FIRE's new policy to support only stories for which the outlet legally protects the freelancer.
The story, by investigative reporter Ian Urbina, revealing troubling global implications of fish farms, was released online here, with associated back-story and videos here.
Conservationists have often hailed fish farms as the best hope for slowing ocean depletion. Urbina’s reporting from Gambia shows that the lucrative production of fishmeal for the farms is actually decimating fish stocks, in addition to causing pollution and other threats to local populations.
The policy ensures that outlets receiving a FIRE-supported story protect the freelance reporter, as they would a staff reporter—a standard The New Yorker had met for Urbina.
More on the new policy below or here; and more on Urbina's story at the nonprofit journalism organization he directs, The Outlaw Ocean Project.
FIRE is pleased to launch an important and long-sought initiative for sensitive freelance investigations in the public interest—pro bono counsel on legal protection and contractual issues.
FIRE is a service bureau for freelancer investigative reporters. We strengthen our constituents’ investigative capacity, primarily via grants and editorial assistance.
Our new service, the only one of its kind we know of, responds to reports that publishers and broadcasters are increasingly shifting legal exposure onto freelancers, hindering their ability to pursue public interest investigations.
Effectively immediately and on a rolling deadline until April 15, 2021, reporters may apply for one-on-one counsel by two veteran media attorneys on a range of contractual issues, including indemnification and insurance. A brief survey (linked below) will help us refine the service.
Stronger protection for unaffiliated reporters means stronger accountability journalism for our fragile democracy. We are encouraging freelance journalists to take the survey and explore the new service.
FIRE provides editorial services and grants through two programs: the Editorial Consultancy (which now includes the new service outlined in the news item above—pro bono contract-related legal assistance); and the Virtual Newsroom, which provides grants and more robust editorial resources.
Effective immediately:
*) All new Virtual Newsrooms come with story grants up to $12,500, or proposal grants up to $2,500. Formerly some did not come with grants.
*) The Editorial Consultancy offers a minimum of two hours of staff time, instead of one hour.
*) The Consultancy has become the gateway to all FIRE Virtual Newsroom grants: You must be an Editorial Consultancy recipient to qualify.
FIRE is currently accepting applications by rolling deadline for all its programs. Until April 15, 2021, that will include the new service, contract-related legal assistance.
Until March 30, we are also inviting reporters to share their contract-related experiences by taking a brief survey.
For full application details, see FIRE’s Guidelines or FAQs.
We are pleased to report the first success of an innovative new FIRE tool—a key reason to support FIRE’s work ahead.
“Freelancers are especially exposed.” —FIRE-supported freelancer Emma Penrod.
On December 23rd, 2020, a U.S. magazine became the first outlet to sign FIRE’s historic boilerplate freelancer’s agreement (see below), which codifies progressive solutions on copyright, revisions, proofs, severability—and indemnification.
The new legal-protection tool is just one way that FIRE’s popular services enable freelancers to confidently investigate in the public interest.
FIRE can now build this confidence, one story at a time. Please donate to strengthen public-interest reporting!
Over the past three years, FIRE has served 79 reporters, including nearly two dozen in 2020, on a range of stories, including winners of three major awards and finalists for four more.
Now we are turning to one of the biggest vulnerabilities facing freelancers in this vulnerable time: liability for court costs, or indemnification.
By default, publishers and broadcasters indemnify their own staff reporters for stories. But outlets increasingly won’t commission freelancers unless they accept the legal exposure of an investigation—sometimes even the outlet’s own court costs.
It’s one more reason why, anecdotally, freelancers are increasingly foregoing public-interest investigations for safer stories—a significant public-interest problem.
In December, with the help of an ex-Bloomberg News general counsel, FIRE introduced a template agreement that includes several provisions for freelancers, including indemnification. As of today, FIRE will support investigative stories only for outlets that indemnify the reporter, via the new contract or the equivalent.
We are taking this stand for a number of reasons. But it means we now have to facilitate even stronger, more complete, more insurable stories for selective and busy editors.
To succeed, we will invest in fewer stories, providing more resources to each—including editorial guidance, fact-checking, and legal review.
FIRE is primarily a service-provider. Our customized assistance and mentoring have proved highly popular. We think this additional protective tool will strengthen freelance investigative capacity—and our successful service model for delivering it—at a critical time.
A few latest releases below—followed by prior stories.
Gretchen Rachel Hammond (Editorial Consultancy)
Produced a five-part series on corrupt guardianship laws in Michigan, in 2019, which was a finalist in the 2020 Chicago Society of Professional Journalists (Lisagor) awards.
Natasha Haverty (Editorial Consultancy)
Created a podcast on prison gerrymandering, the practice of incorrectly counting inmates in the census for political gain, for Reveal in 2020.
Karen Landman (Editorial Consultancy)
Delivered an October, 2020 story on the creation of Georgia's faulty COVID-19 dashboard and its consequences, for Atlanta magazine.
Scott Morris (Editorial Consultancy)
Released a series, published by ProPublica in June 2020, on California businesses that profit from negligent disposal of toxic waste.
We are pleased to announce that two more investigative freelancers have published important public-interest stories with FIRE’s Virtual Newsroom Services.
FIRE-supported Freelancer Emily Palmer
As reported last week, FIRE-supported freelancer Ayo Awokoya co-won a Frontline Club award for a Guardian UK investigation.
Then Emily Palmer’s co-reported Spotlight investigation into federal child-abuse protections, which originated with her FIRE Virtual Newsroom award, appeared Friday in the Boston Globe.
And Monday, another FIRE-supported investigation—Christopher Pala’s story of pesticide encroachment in Hawaii by Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer—ran in Earth Island Journal.
FIRE has served more than 100 reporters in the past four years. Since 2018 alone, we have provided one-hour Editorial Consultancies to nearly 50 freelance investigative reporters and full-service Virtual Newsroom awards to about a dozen reporters.
This service has proved vital to reporters like Awokoya, Palmer, and Pala. And this is a crucial time to keep these stories coming. Thanks to the pledge of a generous FIRE donor, we will double any dollar we raise up to $10,000. Please give $25, $100, $250—or any amount within your means—by clicking here.
With FIRE's help freelancer Emily Palmer, co-reporting with Jessica Huseman at ProPublica, uncovered potentially deadly compliance failures in federal child-abuse protections to win the coveted Spotlight fellowship.
On December 13, 2019, their investigation appeared in the Boston Globe.
In October Sahar Habib Ghazi hired on as FIRE’s deputy investigative editor, joining investigative editor Ted Bridis.
In the next week, we will be announcing the publication of two major FIRE-supported stories, one of them in the Boston Globe [now published: see above].
We have several major investigations in the pipeline behind them. And we are pleased to announce that FIRE-supported reporter Ayo Awokoya, a UK-based freelancer who applied in 2018 to examine modern African slavery in Italian agriculture, has used our full range of services to co-report a June story in the Guardian UK. This fall, it won the 2019 Frontline Club Award for print—and a nomination for the Foreign Press Association.
In October, FIRE Investigative Editor Ted Bridis, the former AP Washington investigative chief, whose team won the Pulitzer and several other major awards, was joined by FIRE's new deputy investigative editor, global journalist Sahar Habib Ghazi, based in Karachi.
The two editors perfectly complement one another. Together they will ensure that independent journalists like Awokoya can tackle the hard work of public interest reporting, knowing they are not alone.
“I really wanted to thank you,” Awokoya wrote on notifying us of the Frontline Club award, “because you and FIRE were so pivotal to the piece and really gave me the guidance I needed."
As FIRE was for Awokoya, you can be for FIRE—a catalyst, a facilitator, a champion. Please join FIRE’s circle of friends with a contribution. Please help us support this work.
While FIRE has several stories in process for US outlets, FIRE-supported reporters also have made progress with two UK-based outlets: The Guardian and the BBC.
*) This spring we helped London-based journalist Ayo Awokoya parlay a range of FIRE services into a corporate accountability piece for The Guardian Longreads. Stay tuned for an announcement on its release and recent award.
*) Congratulations to UK-based producer/director Cat McShane for recent well-deserved recognition: In 2017, FIRE helped McShane advance broad reporting on the influx of private equity money into residential housing since the 2008 financial crisis. She ultimately developed her investigation into a BBC Panorama film, which was nominated for a 2019 Wincott Award for the best business journalism in the UK.
*) Also this summer, FIRE investigative editor Ted Bridis helped DC-based reporter Christopher Pala advance a corporate accountability investigation—details in next announcement as well.
FIRE is partner in the upcoming DOUBLE EXPOSURE film festival, the United States' first and only film festival dedicated to investigative works in film.
It opens Thursday, October 10th with the Washington D.C. premiere of DESERT ONE, the highly-anticipated new documentary from two-time Academy-Award-winning director Barbara Kopple (Harlan County U.S.A.). Film passes and tickets for all four days, Thursday to Sunday, October 10-13, are on sale now at dxfest.com. Get 10% off on your Film Pass using code DX10PARTNER.
Freelance Investigative Reporters and Editors (FIRE) is pleased to announce a new round of applications for FIRE’s Virtual Newsroom, which provides unaffiliated reporters with newsroom services and associated grants, now up to $12,500 each.
The application deadline is Wednesday, June 12, 2019. Criteria and application details
are at Guidelines and Application.
FIRE supports freelance investigative reporters working on stories in the public
interest. This round FIRE will be offering 5 Virtual Newsroom awards—at least two of
them coming with grants of up to $12,500—and more than 20 one-hour Editorial
Consultancies, in which an experienced editor works with recipients on a story or project.
We are grateful to the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation and our individual donors for
supporting these democracy-strengthening reporting services. We look forward to sharing updates on FIRE stories shortly.
Please spread the word on the June 12 deadline—and contact me with questions any time, as always.
Thanks to increased funding over the past three years, including support this year from the Ford Foundation, FIRE is pleased to announce major advances in our services and in our establishment of long-term sustainability. It's support from friends like you that makes our growth possible; I hope you'll join me in making a gift to ensure we continue to thrive in 2019.
Our 2018 highlights include:
The hiring of Ted Bridis—most recently director of the Associated Press’s Pulitzer-winning Washington investigative team—as FIRE’s new investigative editor.
The launch of another successful round of applications this summer, with a dozen new FIRE stories in the works.
The ongoing development of FIRE stories with The Boston Globe, New York Times magazine, the BBC, BuzzFeed News, and Reveal. (The Globe story is due out after the holidays).
The arrangement with a new pro bono collaborator, the International Senior Lawyers Project, to advise FIRE reporters on freelance contracts with outlets across all media.
We also are in the final planning stages of an innovative national online community of freelance investigative reporters (if you are a freelancer, we welcome your thoughts at firenewsroom.org/program/FIRE-online).
Furthermore, with $50,000 in new support from the Ford Foundation, we were able to conduct a national needs assessment of journalists of color, while also providing six journalists with FIRE diversity fellowships.
Lastly, thanks to our recent grant from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation ($170,000 over 2 years) we have launched a strategic planning process designed to ensure long-term operational sustainability.
We are working hard. At FIRE we believe that freelance investigative reporters—a long-neglected part of public-interest journalism—deserve the best possible infrastructure, services, and resources. A fair and healthy future increasingly depends on properly supported investigative freelancers. Especially in a time of upheaval in newsrooms, our constituents are integral to public-interest journalism, and thus to democracy.
In September, 2018, FIRE hired a new investigative editor, Ted Bridis, formerly investigative chief of the Associated Press's Pulitzer-winning Washington bureau. Bridis leads FIRE's service to reporters, helping them develop their stories. You can read his full bio here.
Freelance Investigative Reporters and editors (FIRE), a fiscally sponsored project of IRE, is pleased to announce the launch of FIRE Diversity Fellowships to promote investigative training for underrepresented reporters nationwide. Made possible with support from the Ford Foundation, the fellowships are available to US-based journalists of color currently working as freelance investigative reporters, or planning to do so soon.
The FIRE Diversity Fellowship covers IRE Watchdog Workshops, and other IRE trainings in 2018.
The Watchdog workshops cover a range of investigative topics—from use of public records, to interviewing and sourcing techniques, with optional half-day spreadsheet trainings available in some locations.
The FIRE Diversity Fellowship for IRE Trainings covers the following:
(This position has been filled as of October 2018)
Freelance Investigative Reporters and Editors (FIRE) is hiring a part-time contract investigative editor to help unaffiliated (freelance) reporters complete independent investigations for print, broadcast, and online outlets.
FIRE, a fiscally sponsored project of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), helps create a more just, democratic society by building the capacity of freelance investigative journalists from diverse backgrounds to produce investigations in the public interest. While serving the freelance investigative reporting sector as a whole, FIRE also helps individual freelance investigative reporters—including through grants and the research and editorial services of FIRE's Virtual Newsroom.
The editor's duties will include assisting the executive director with:
screening grant applications
providing editorial services to reporters
monitoring and ensuring reporters' progress on stories
other duties as arranged with executive director
Editorial services will include mentoring, identifying story needs, and making referrals to relevant resources and experts within FIRE’s network.
Position is 20 hours a week—pay is $50-$60 an hour, depending on skills and experience.
Location is flexible.
Requirements include five to seven years editing experience, with investigative background a strong plus.
Position starts immediately and is open until filled.
Please send a resume and cover letter addressing your qualifications to hire@firenewsroom.org. Please put "Investigative Editor" in the subject line.
