New England Center for Investigative Reporting

The "New England Center for Investigative Reporting" (NECIR) is a nonprofit investigative newsroom housed at Boston University^[1] and the studios of WGBH News in Boston, Massachusetts. Its mission is to expose injustice by producing and teaching in-depth, impact-making journalism. Founded in 2009 by veteran investigative journalists Joe Bergantino and Maggie Mulvihill, NECIR’s budget is approximately $900,000 a year. Half of that is covered by the center’s investigative reporting training programs and the sale of stories. The rest of its budget is funded by foundations, individual donors and Boston University.

History

By 2008, the financial instabilities facing newspapers was leading to a precipitous decline in investigative reporting in New England and around the country.^[2] In January 2009, Joe Bergantino and Maggie Mulvihill –in collaboration with Boston University College of Communication Dean and former Miami Herald executive editor Tom Fiedler—launched NECIR to expose injustice by producing and teaching in-depth, impact-making journalism. NECIR-produced stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, in mid-size newspapers across Massachusetts and New England and on radio and TV news outlets in the Boston area such as WGBH and WBUR. These stories have led to changes laws, policy and behavior. Past stories revealed:

• Unreported abuse, neglect and deaths of children monitored by Massachusetts child welfare officials, triggering to a public outcry and the governor’s decision to reform the assessment system used by the Department of Children and Families.
• Holes in an arson and murder conviction, leading directly to the release of a man who had served 30 years in prison for the crime.
• Poorly understood contracts for reverse home mortgages were forcing the elderly out of their homes, prompting readers to raise enough money to save one senior from eviction.
• Unacknowledged corporate influence over research and advocacy from some of the nation’s most respected policy “think tanks” in Washington.
• False reports by Boston’s Department of Public Works of pothole repairs, spurring the mayor to adopt a “311”city accountability call system.

Training

NECIR's Pre-College Summer Journalism Institute for high school students is the largest summer journalism program of its kind in the country. Since its inception in 2009, it has trained about hundreds of young journalists. It has attracted students from at least 23 states and eight countries. NECIR reporters also have trained journalists working in countries without a strong tradition of investigative reporting, such as Russia, Georgia and the Baltics.

Supporters

NECIR is supported hundreds of individuals, grantmaking foundations, and other institutions, including:

• Boston University
• WGBH Foundation
• Harbus Foundation

Staff

Burt Glass, executive director

Jenifer McKim, senior reporter

Chris Burrell, reporter

Ermolande Jean-Simon, marketing and events manager

References