A New Destination for Investigative Journalism
Welcome to RealClearInvestigations. It is both the latest addition to the RealClear family and an original new voice in investigative journalism.
Our mission is three-fold: curate the best investigative reporting found anywhere, produce our own in-depth journalism, and make this original work available to other news organizations. Our work is supported by the RealClearFoundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. (See below).
That last detail reflects a by now well-established shift in how news is financed and produced: from profit-based models to donor-supported nonprofit endeavors. The area most affected by this transformation is investigative news -- journalism’s most vital work, and typically its most expensive and labor-intensive.
Since the Internet’s disruption of media revenue streams, newspapers and other legacy news outfits have cut back drastically on the kind of in-depth, long-form reporting that distinguished them in their glory days. Donors have stepped into this void, using tax-deductible contributions to finance a robust new marketplace of nonprofit news startups, many with an investigative focus. They occupy different points across the political spectrum and often partner with traditional media outlets.
In addition, advocacy groups and others are increasingly using the tools of investigative reporting – especially freedom of information act requests – to uncover government secrets and drive news coverage.
All this ferment has created the need for a trusted arbiter of investigative news, whether reported by newspapers or digital upstarts. Enter RealClear, with 18 years of balanced, widely admired news aggregation under its belt.
Launched in 2016, RealClearInvestigations is more than a seasoned observer of the action on the field. It is also a player. Its vantage point as news aggregator leaves it well-placed to identify and fill gaps in investigative coverage, including blind spots in media itself.
After spending 28 years as an editor at the New York Times, I am excited about the opportunity to create a new brand that will both highlight and produce the time-honored work that attracts reporters, editors and readers to quality journalism.
The more people feel bewildered by what is happening to the world around them, or betrayed by those they trusted, the more we need investigative journalists to ask hard questions and insist on real, clear answers.
---Tom Kuntz, Editor, RealClearInvestigations
Please send article links and other suggestions to submissions@realclearinvestigations.com.
The RealClearFoundation
Every day, RealClear’s aggregated news sites facilitate conversations between rival ideas, authors, and institutions. Today, the RealClear brand is recognized for its impeccable credibility, political nonpartisanship, and true ideological diversity.
The RealClearFoundation is a donor-financed 501(c)(3) philanthropy. Its purpose is to expand the RealClear experience into areas of public interest that cannot be sustained by profits from advertising.
As newsrooms across the country are shuttering their investigative units, the Foundation has committed itself to raising the considerable amounts of money needed to support long-form investigative journalism--typically the most expensive and labor-intensive news to produce.
In short, investigative journalism, the vital work of news, demands a nonprofit expression and we aim to provide it.
But we can't do it alone. We invite you to put your money where your mind is and help us foster a better society through better informed readers.
---David DesRosiers, President RealClearFoundation
Tax identification number: 52-2128875
