Spectrum

Investigative journalism is not the sole province of only big-city newspapers like the “New York Times” or the “Washington Post.” Instead, it is starting to flourish at the grassroots level through the assistance of the Institute for Non-Profit News (INN), a collective of over 100 non-profit news organizations across the country. The groups are committed to transparency in government and to hold public officials accountable. Affiliates across the country pay INN “a small fee each month in exchange for tech support; they help to negotiate deals on behalf of all members, and every year they have matching funds for member fund drives,” says Lucia Walinchus, the executive director of Eye on Ohio, the Ohio Center for Investigative Journalism. Members also have the ability to share content from other member organizations. Walinchus is an award-winning journalist, an author and an attorney. She often uses large data sets to research stories and is extremely adept at computer-assisted reporting. She has been publ