US: ProPublica strives to have the largest investigative journalism team in U.S.

Posted by Carolyn Lo on April 17, 2008 at 11:08 AM

ProPublica, the non-profit investigative journalism project funded entirely by charitable donations, aims to recruit the largest team of investigative journalists in the US, employing 25 full-time reporters and editors by the end of the year. They have just added five new members to its editorial team.

Eric Umansky, former Slate columnist, will be senior writer and lead daily contributor to the site, and Susan White, former enterprise editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune, will be site editor. Also joining the team as reporters are freelance writer Sheri Fink, Christina Jewett from the Sacramento Bee, Abrahm Lustgarten, former staff writer for Fortune, and Joaquin Sapien, former reporter for The Center for Public Integrity.

"The soul of a great investigative team is its reporters and we've been fortunate to attract a very high level of reportorial talent," said Stephen Engelberg, managing editor of ProPublica.

With investigative journalism struggling to survive in papers, this model seems to be giving it a boost so far.

Source: Journalism.co.uk, eMedia Wire through Poynter Online