Station Interest In Investigation, IRE On Rise

With TV stations’ renewed focus on enterprise stories, the annual conference of Investigative Reporters and Editors is garnering a bigger following among broadcasters, but not apparently at the expense of Radio Television Digital News Association.

IRE Executive Director Mark Horvit has not yet tabulated how many local broadcasters were at this year’s gathering, held over the June 20-23 weekend in San Antonio, but says he suspects they accounted for a higher proportion of the attendance and helped swell the total to around 1,200. That “is huge for IRE,” he said.

The NBC O&Os sent more than 50 broadcasters to the conference, according to a spokesperson for the group.

About 50 of the 75 or so Scripps employees in attendance were from the stations, says Brian Lawlor, SVP of Scripps’ TV division. The others were from Scripps’ print and digital divisions.

Investigative reporting has been “a very been a big part of the culture of our company for decades,” Lawlor says. “It’s a very important part of the brands we have in local markets.”

And a large number of Gannett’s 130 attendees represented TV stations, Horvit says.

Broadcasters’ growing association with IRE does not mean TV folks are turning their back on other professional groups, most notably the RTDNA, long the go-to organization for broadcast journalists.

Rather, broadcasters and the heads of both organizations, say the rise in broadcaster attendance at IRE shows local TV news’ newfound commitment to investigative reporting — and getting it right to boot — more than shedding existing ties.

“I’m intrigued and heartened by a big broadcast turnout at IRE, and hope it portends good things for investigative reporting, which has had its ups and downs in recent years,” says RTDNA Executive Director Mike Cavender, who was invited but not able to attend the IRE conference.

“But I have no indication at all that it indicates any [defection] from our organization or any other journalism group for that matter.”

Cavender says he’s seen a slight uptick in the number of journalists joining more than one professional association. “I think we’re all blessed by the fact that we offer different things to professionals, and membership reflects that.”

“What’s good as far as I’m concerned is an apparent heightened interest in this specialty [investigative reporting],” he says. “That’s what really matters.”

The station groups that sent contingents to IRE back up that assessment.

They say they will continue to send news directors to the RTDNA annual conference, which has been held in conjunction with those of the Society of Professional Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The next combined Excellence in Journalism convention in slated for Aug. 24-26 in Anaheim, Calif.

Scripps will use that occasion to gather news directors from across the company as it did last year.

Other station groups planning to attend the Anaheim meeting include Media General, LIN, Nexstar and Telemundo, an RTDNA spokesman says.

Horvit agrees that the associations and their conferences are complementary. The rise in broadcasters among IRE attendees, which started about two years ago, he says, shows the industry has come to the realization that investigative reporting is key to its success, something “we have been preaching for a long time.”

“The only way you can separate yourself from everything else that’s out there is to have news that nobody else has that’s accurate,” Horvit says. “To see these companies investing in that is a wonderful thing.”

Horvit believes broadcasters’ growing involvement with IRE is “a trend that’s going to continue” now that the realization is sinking in.

A study released at IRE shows that the value of investigative reporting is more than just a hunch.

The AR&D/IRE survey, which polled 1,000 consumers, shows that 62% of consumers consider investigative content reason enough to follow particular news outlets, including TV stations.

In addition, 54% of respondents say they have a specific interest in investigative reports, making that category the second largest draw after weather.

The NBC O&O’s 50 IRE convention-goers included a mix of reporters, producers, executive producers, photographers and news directors, reflecting the priority the group has put on investigative reporting, a spokeswoman says. All 10 stations in the group now have investigative units.

For the third year in a row, Scripps held a daylong investigative reporting workshop exclusively for its employees while at IRE, addressing technology and First Amendment law as it relates to investigative reporting, says Lawlor.

While last month’s IRE conference included a track of broadcast-specific panels, just as in the past, broadcasters’ participation expanded beyond just those sessions this year as TV journalists attended more general sessions as both panelists and participants, Horvit says.

Station groups are also working with IRE outside the annual conference.

Hearst Television, for example, will conduct four regional training sessions with IRE this year (the same number the group held last year) “to increase the number of people on our teams who can contribute to our investigative efforts,” says VP of News Barbara Maushard.

“Accountability journalism continues to be an important area of focus for Hearst Television.”

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