If you’re stuck in the relentless cycle of daily news, it can be hard to make time for work that needs it. I personally have one project on the front burner (stay tuned, it’s coming out next week) and another on the back, (OK it really only exists in my mind but darn it I have to start!)

“The back burner can get pretty remote,” said Doug Haddix, executive director of Investigative Editors and Reporters. 

Having someone to manage long-term work helps keep that work from boiling down. And now, there’s a new project that will help you find that someone. Last week, the Investigative Editing Corps officially launched. The short version is it connects seasoned investigative editors with local newsrooms that need them. The editor gets a stipend. The newsrooms pay nothing. You can read about IEC, how to offer investigative editing skills and make use of those skills here. 

I asked Haddix if he had any advice for local journalists who want to do more investigations. He did — see what’s being entered in contests. 

“We just received 470 entries in the IRE awards across all news platforms and all sizes,” he said.

Check out what’s winning and placing in finalist categories in other contests, Haddix said, and subscribe to Local Matters, a weekly newsletter IRE sponsors that three local journalists started to highlight the great local investigative work that’s happening. 

(P.S. Thank you to Djordje Padejski for first sharing news of IEC with me a few years ago while we were both in Romania for a journalism conference. Padejski is the associate director of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford University. I’m pretty sure he mentioned it on a walk we shared across Bucharest to meet with local Romanian journalists, then he followed up with contact info. Moral of the story: Tips are always very, very welcome!)


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While you’re here:

• I used to send this newsletter on Wednesdays and I’ve shifted to Thursdays. It’s giving me more time to work on stories and hopefully helps Local Edition feel less rushed. I’m listening to complaints and compliments!

• Facebook has been busy! It’s continuing its accelerator program, continuing the Instagram local news fellowships, and just announced a new round of grant winners. 

• I’m excited to see what Outlier Media and MuckRock do together. 

• In addition to loving what’s happening with The 19th, look at all the jobs (and many are remote or not in D.C. or NYC.)

• Speaking of amazing women, Digital Women Leaders has a great new site. It’s both easy to use and easy to see the abundance of women who work in local news who have a lot to offer other women. Reach out!

• Lenfest made a very useful journalism conference guide for 2020. 

• And if you’re not able to head to any conferences but want to keep growing, check out this online seminar from Poynter’s NewsU on becoming a more effective writer. 

• Finally, a tease: Next week, I’ll be sharing a project I’ve been working on for a while that includes a story on what you need to know before your newsroom moves to a new content management system. The short answer — a lot. Stay tuned! 

That’s it for me! See you next week!