Investigative Local Reporting Has a Future—But It Won’t Look Like the Past

Over the course of the last two weeks, New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan has gone in search of local investigative reporting. As many newspapers continue to cut back, Sullivan asked where the capacity for local investigative reporting that holds leaders and institutions accountable will come from. “Clearly, local investigative journalism can’t be allowed to die out, even as local newspapers struggle to survive,” she wrote in one column. “The mission is far too important.”