He knew, when he first learned about Keith Raniere and Nxivm (pronounced like the drug, nex-ee-um,) that it wouldn’t be a one-and-done.

“I knew that this one was never gonna go away because Keith was not gonna go away willingly,” Hardin said. “Keith was only gonna get more and more extreme.”

The alleged cult leader did just that. After more than a decade of coverage by local journalists, a New York Times story about women who were branded with his initials finally broke through the dam of power, influence and money Raniere built around himself. 

But the thing that piled up behind that dam in the first place included more than 16 years of local reporting, starting with and sustained by the Albany (New York) Times Union. You can read more about their work in my latest story, Local Journalists Uncovered Sex Cult Nxivm Years Before Hollywood Paid Attention.

I asked Brendan Lyons, one of the reporters who’s spent years covering the story of Nxivm for the Times Union, how local newsrooms can sustain this kind of work as they shrink?

“We still have to cover the nuts and bolts,” he said, but don’t let lawmakers and their press releases dictate what you’re doing each day.

Be persistent.

“File one FOIA request a week.”

Be smart and brave.

“You’ve gotta be tenacious and courageous and careful. All of those things.”

And make what you do count.

“I think that even with a shrinking workforce, we have to still maintain our focus on looking to hit triples and home runs, not just singles.”


In this April 13, 2018 courtroom sketch, Keith Raniere, center, leader of the secretive group Nxivm, attends a hearing at court in the Brooklyn borough of New York.  (Elizabeth Williams via AP, File)

While you’re here:

• Got cash? Al Cross writes for The Rural Blog that it’s a buyer’s market for local weeklies “with not enough buyers.”

• Speaking of weeklies: Poynter’s Al Tompkins wrote about the Adair County (Kentucky) Community Voice, which is boldly covering opioid addiction, and its publisher, who mailed free copies of that coverage to every household in the county.

• Learn: If you haven’t yet started reading The New York Times’ 1619 Project, go do that. Then, check out this classroom curriculum from the Pulitzer Center. Seems like a great opportunity for local education reporters. 

• Posters! Last week’s Cohort newsletter includes such great advice on making real change inside newsrooms. Bonus: It comes with posters you can print out or screenshot and save for inspiration.

• Meet the luckiest man in the world: I love the full circle this WWII POW created at the end of his life. It’s my latest obit for the Tampa Bay Times.

That’s it, I will not see you next week, I am off work, but will pick things back up again the week after.