Introduction to Investigative Journalism: Collaborations

Collaborations in investigative journalism — involving at least two news organizations in the same or different countries working together on the same or a related investigation — seem to be everywhere today.

The rewards of collaborating can be huge: greater visibility of your story, increased potential for impact and, in some cases, better protection for journalists working in difficult circumstances.

Yet each collaboration is different. Two newsrooms in the same city working together on a one-off investigative story may require tools and a plan of attack that differs from what is needed to deliver a year-long collaborative project involving 100 journalists in 20 countries that spans time zones, languages, and understandings of professional ethics and practices.

Planning — making it clear who plays key roles and operating transparently and fairly with your partners — is critical, no matter the size or nature of the collaboration.

This chapter will offer advice and case studies on collaborations in investigative journalism.

Ask Yourself Why You Want to Collaborate. Then, Pick Your Partners Well

Be prepared and make sure collaboration brings added value to the investigation. Avoid the temptation to collaborate because it’s a trend. Some stories, even we admit, can be better done alone. Write a list of the pros and cons of collaboration. Can your potential partner obtain documents or conduct foreign language interviews that you cannot? Does your partner have data or specialized skills that complement yours and are key to the investigation? Is the story too dangerous — or too complex — for you to pursue and publish alone?

One of the most important decisions you will make in your collaboration is choosing who you invite to be part of the team. When selecting individual partners look at the individual in full, not just the journalist’s publicized accomplishments or reporting skills. Ask trusted colleagues what their experience was collaborating with the person you are seeking to engage. Is this journalist a team player? Can they communicate well in a diverse group? How do they react in stressful situations? How do they treat colleagues from smaller newsrooms? If the collaboration involves not just an individual but a team from a news organization, apply the same standards to the journalist in charge of the team.

When you are invited to join a collaboration, be alert for red flags. Is the organization inviting you to fully participate but merely seeking someone to pick up documents, set up interviews, or conduct other such tasks? Or is it willing to share information, experience, and reporting material? Is the organization inviting you to engage in “window dressing,” i.e. asking you to join not as a substantive partner but merely to make the collaboration seem bigger, better, more global, etc.?

Remember: brilliant jerks are never worth it. Also, life is too short.

Decide How You Will Communicate and Share Information

A collaboration will often require tools or platforms for at least three purposes: communicating, sharing documents, and managing the project.

Be mindful of potential resource disparities among partners. Your organization may have reliable WiFi, electricity, and professional fact-checkers. But your partner’s newsroom may not. Some of the best investigative reporters don’t have regular access to computers or the internet.

Tools range from basic to expensive — but safer.

Communication

We think every reporter should use Signal, a free app that can help you communicate safely with partners. You can provide reporting updates to the entire team in a chat group (“I just finished my interview with Mrs. X”) or discuss logistics (“I have a medical appointment and can’t make this morning’s meeting. Can we reschedule?”)

But we don’t recommend Signal for large groups of reporters, editors and other team members who may be only peripherally involved. No one wants to be constantly interrupted by messages. If your project is larger and involves regular messages, consider a project management tool (discussed below).

If communication is especially sensitive, consider using encrypted email. Mailvelope is a free program and can be easily added to your existing Gmail account. If you have the resources, you might also want to consider options for purchase, including GPG Suite.

For more complex discussions or when you need to communicate as a group, consider free or paid options for live meetings. Google Meet can be effective, as can Zoom. If security is a serious consideration, you may want to look into GoToMeeting or Jitsi, which are more secure.

Decide on how often you require calls and what purpose they serve. We have always found it helpful to build a sense of community and update team members through regular (weekly, fortnightly) calls. If you organize a call, it is your responsibility to prepare the agenda and run the meeting efficiently. A badly organized meeting can kill the collaborative spirit.

Sharing Documents and Other Information

If the data (documents, interview transcripts, etc.) you are using as part of your collaboration are not highly sensitive in nature, consider using Google Drive to organize your work. You can create folders based on the documents (“Transcripts,” “Photos,” “Documents for publication,” “Draft stories,” “Final fact-checked stories”) and share those folders with all the members of the collaboration, or limit sharing to those who need access.

Security reminder: Sometimes a piece of information may be sensitive in one country but not in another. A journalist in Country A could be arrested for having a document about the country’s president, but a reporter in Country B may obtain the same document without risk.

If you require more advanced technology, consider paid tools such as remote workspace Confluence, document and resource manager Document Cloud, and app-building platform Airtable.

Such tools may require reporters and editors to spend time learning how to use them. Depending on the complexity of your investigation, your data and the experience of everyone involved, such tools may be a great idea — or not worth the time and trouble.

Aleph, an open source platform managed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), can help store and analyze documents. Datashare, created by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), allows you to store and analyze documents locally (on your personal computer), offline, and through servers.

Many of the same communication and document management platforms described above will help with overall management of the collaboration.

Aleph, an open source platform developed by the OCCRP, can help store and analyze documents and help reporters “follow the money” by providing access to archives of databases and research material. Image: Screenshot, OCCRP

Decide What You Are Willing — And Unwilling — To Do and Share

Some successful collaborations have nearly failed because of misunderstandings — or even anger — about what partners are expected to share.

Sometimes, one reporter will be willing to share everything, including interview transcripts, confidential documents, photos, and incomplete drafts. Other reporters may not feel comfortable sharing the same level of information or may have reasons why they cannot. (For example, some photographers only allow their photos to be published by their direct employer.)

Some rules will be set in stone. Others may be open to negotiation. We have seen newsrooms and journalists move from “We cannot do that” to “We are happy to do that” after an explanation by the project coordinator of why sharing is beneficial to all.

Be clear with partners about all key rules — flexible or not — as soon as possible (see the example collaboration agreement, below).

The more generosity and openness you show in a collaboration, the more other partners will open up to you and support your research. You will also create goodwill for future projects.

Decide Who Is Managing the Collaboration and Who Is Doing What

No matter the size of your collaboration, we recommend appointing someone responsible for managing it. The person will also be key for resolving any conflicts (see below).

This person may be an editor or someone already in a management role or, in other cases, one of the project’s lead reporters. No matter who it is, be sure the person in charge understands that the role often involves unglamorous tasks, including organizing meetings, setting agendas, chasing after inactive partners, applying for funding, and having hard conversations about deadlines and possible legal matters.

Depending on the size of a collaboration and the skills and languages involved, your project might also involve regional managers or story-based managers. ICIJ, for example, used partnership coordinators in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe to help journalists in those regions with specific needs.

Collaboration managers play a crucial role in the success of joint investigations. They need emotional intelligence and organizational skills, a thorough understanding of the investigation’s material, and the ability to communicate well across cultures. Be kind and responsive to your collaboration managers — they have a tough job.

In our experience, it is better to involve more than one person at every partner news organization in planning, reporting, and editing. We know of situations in which a reporter agreed to join a project but never told an editor. When the editor learned about the collaboration after the fact, they became upset and pulled the reporter off the project. Ensure you have the support and buy-in of your editor before agreeing to join a collaboration.

A selection of recent GIJN coverage of investigative collaborations and innovations in cross-border projects. Image: Screenshot, GIJN

Choose a Publication Date

Many successful investigations in recent times have involved partners agreeing to simultaneously publish their first story. Such coordination can help reach a much larger audience.

Be transparent about your wishes for a joint publication date, but be ready to change. Especially if you are working with partners in a different country, be aware of possible curveballs. Maybe there is a local election or a religious holiday on the day you proposed, something that would make it difficult for your partner to accommodate.

If the collaboration involves multiple stories, discuss with your partners. Beyond the first story, are there other stories, videos or content that should be published in coordination? Or are partner newsrooms free to publish at their own pace after the project is officially launched? As always, have these discussions early so that no one is surprised.

Of course, successful collaborations have also been based on the premise of a more flexible roll-out. We have always found it useful to have a joint “Go!” date, but, no matter your decision, communicate and agree with partners from the beginning about when and at what cadence you intend to publish, individually and as a collective.

Members of the Pulitzer Center Ocean Reporting Network in the harbor of Barcelona. The team gathered in April 2024 to discuss their reporting and to attend the 2024 Ocean Decade conference. Image: Courtesy of Pulitzer Center

Discuss Money and Legal Matters

Few things can cause more pain than fights over money and the law.

Be sure to establish expectations at the start of your collaboration. If your collaboration involves both well-resourced and under-resourced newsrooms, is there any expectation that the former will pay the latter for travel expenses, photocopying, document retrieval, or even their time?

Who is writing and sending requests for comment letters? Are all partners sending the same requests for comment or are some — or all — partners sending their own? And how are responses to those letters shared?

Remember that there are wide cultural differences in such matters; journalists in some countries must send detailed questions weeks before publication; journalists in other countries may have legitimate security reasons to delay seeking comment. Discuss the “who, when, how, and why” as a group.

If partners have lawyers reviewing stories before publication, should lawyers at one newsroom speak to lawyers of a partner newsroom to ensure they are on the same page?

Put the Collaboration in Writing

Once you have discussed basic ground rules (like those above), put the guidelines in writing.

In its simplest form, a “collaboration agreement” is a list of things that all partners agree to do (communicate, share reporting, respect confidentiality, etc.)  and not do (publish before everyone else, etc.). Most likely, it will not be written as a legally binding agreement although some larger newsrooms with lawyers may prefer it so. Our recommendation is to keep the agreement simple – and friendly. A collaboration should be a positive venture, not a threat.

Here is an example of a basic agreement:

The purpose of a collaboration agreement is not to cover all possible events, but to lay down basic rules of engagement. Some of the examples above may not apply to your next investigation. There will almost certainly be other points you want to add.

Try to plan for every eventuality; then accept that you can’t.

Manage Conflicts Early

In nearly every good collaboration (and certainly in every bad one), conflicts will arise. Having a project coordinator (see above) will help. So will having a collaboration agreement that you can point back to on key points.

As much as possible, try to anticipate risks. The possibilities are endless, but here are some examples from our experiences:

• If you are dealing with documents provided by a whistleblower, source, or prominent expert, be clear who may and may not contact them. (No one wants to be contacted by 20 different reporters with the same questions!)
• If sensitive files are involved, quickly identify and communicate how such files can be made secure and shared.
• Ask all journalists involved in the project to confirm that they are willing (or not) to be identified by name at the time of publication. For security reasons, some participating journalists should not be named.
• If one partner wishes to publish a press release or Instagram post about the investigation, clearly agree that it will be reviewed by the collaboration manager and that there is accord on when such information may be released.

When a problem does emerge, try not to overreact. You and your partners will make mistakes. But many of them will, in our experience, be small: a teaser video published a few hours too early; differences as to when to approach the subject of the reporting for comment; lawyers for one partner having irritating questions.

Where appropriate, address issues with project members through your chosen means of communication (a face-to-face conversation or a Signal/Zoom call might help you solve the issue faster than a string of emails or texts going back and forth). But also remember that what seems huge at the time may be less significant after successfully launching your collaboration.

Pro tip: Address conflict swiftly and proactively and, as we say, leave your ego at the door.

Case Studies

The examples below show how teams of journalists have worked together to produce investigations that would have been impossible without collaboration. Journalists – from those with decades of collaboration experience to those who teamed up with others for the first time – provide practical tips and advice.

Shadow Diplomats

Image: Screenshot, ICIJ

Journalists created a first-of-its-kind database of wrongdoing by honorary consuls, exposing a largely unregulated system of volunteer diplomats who work from their home countries to promote the interests of foreign governments.

The ICIJ and ProPublica agreed to publish the same investigations, written together by reporters from the two newsrooms. More than 100 reporters from other countries and news organizations published their own investigations, drawing in part on the database, which was available to all partners. Responding to the investigation, eight countries took action, removing honorary consuls from their posts or announcing reforms.

Tip: Centralize data fact-checking and share the results. The ICIJ and ProPublica vetted each entry in the database, giving partners the confidence to use such information and focus their time and energy on storytelling relevant to their audiences.

Losing Paradise

Image: Screenshot, Pulitzer Center

Pulitzer Center rainforest investigative fellows Karol Ilagan and Andrew Lehren brought together their outlets, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) and NBC News, to uncover the supply chain that feeds nickel mined from Philippine rainforests into US car batteries.

The reporters used data, satellite imagery, and traditional reporting to track nickel step by step from the threatened rainforests of Palawan Island in the Philippines to Japan and the United States, where the high-demand mineral is used by Tesla, Toyota, and other car companies.

Tip: When tracking supply chains and complementary locations, linguistic and research skills are essential. Ilagan dug up local documents in the Philippines and conducted field reporting in Palawan, while Lehren brought deep experience tracking supply chains that led to the US market and analyzing obscure business documents. As in many Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines did not have supply chain information available. The reporters were able to establish the link between the Philippines and the US through Japan, where the mineral processing takes place. Lehren and Ilagan’s outlets and audiences were complementary, too — they published simultaneously in the Philippines and the US in broadcast and digital media.

Smoking for the State: How China Became Addicted to Its Tobacco Monopoly

Image: Screenshot, The Examination

Journalists at The Examination, a nonprofit newsroom investigating corporations and public health issues, Initium Media, a Singapore-based Chinese language outlet, and German partners, Paper Trail Media and Der Spiegel collaborated on this investigation into China National Tobacco Corporation, a government-owned entity and one of the biggest drivers of sickness and death on the planet.

Reporters obtained exclusive documents and scoured corporate records and obscure translations, revealing a two-decade effort by Chinese authorities to undermine a landmark global treaty and keep its people smoking. Reporters took significant risks reporting inside China, exposing a multi-billion dollar company.

Tip: “Don’t let partnership discussions drag on,” says Jason McClure, a reporter for The Examination. “There is nothing wrong with being upfront and telling a potential partner that you need a prompt response and that, if you don’t hear from them by X date, you will assume they are out and move on.”

Luxurious Real Estate

Cap Ferrat is in the south of France, where many companies based in tax havens own property. Image: Shutterstock

Freelance journalists and reporters from Le Nouvel Observateur and Bellingcat exposed almost 200 questionable real estate deals in France by powerful people tied to autocrats, human rights abuses, and corruption.

Reporters used public data as the basis of their investigation — something that French officials appeared not to have done, despite warnings from international organizations that the real estate sector represented a high risk for money laundering.

Tip: “Have clearly defined roles and choose people who were motivated by the project,” says Emmanuel Freudenthal, lead reporter on the project. “Everyone knew what their task was — but were also open to new ones.”

Will Fitzgibbon is a reporter and global partnership coordinator at The Examination, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates corporate wrongdoing, sickness, and death. Will previously worked for ICIJ as a reporter and coordinator of partnerships in Africa and the Middle East, playing central roles in investigations such as Panama Papers and Pandora Papers.

Marina Walker Guevara is executive editor at the Pulitzer Center, a nonprofit that supports in-depth journalism and civic engagement globally. She has managed some of the most ambitious journalistic collaborations, including Panama Papers and Paradise Papers.