Veteran Mexican journalist Alejandra Xanic shares the lessons she learned in setting up an investigative nonprofit, from how to move beyond prioritizing survival to the importance of administrative support.
Alejandra Xanic, general editor of Quinto Elemento Lab and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, tells how they created the nonprofit journalistic laboratory that is changing the way investigative journalism is produced in Mexico.
In the run-up to the 2019 Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Hamburg this September 26 to 29, we’re featuring one Global Shining Light Award finalist per day. Check out “The Country With 2,000 Graves,” by the collective “A donde van los desaparecidos” and Quinto Elemento Lab.
The Global Investigative Journalism Network is delighted to welcome 10 new member organizations. Along with training centers in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Trinidad, our new members include a Cuban environmental reporting site, a Brazilian newsroom focused on human rights, a Mexican media lab, a Russian citizen investigative center, a Swiss startup magazine, a European reporting network and a Philippine investigative reporting center.
The dependence of Mexican media on official advertising, reductions in newsrooms and the search by media outlets to “fill spaces,” meant that investigative journalism is increasingly forgotten, and the little that is done is failing to create the impact it should. In order to rectify this, reporters Alexandra Xanic, Daniel Lizárraga, Ignacio Rodríguez Reyna and Marcela Turati set up Quinto Elemento Lab – to work with and mentor investigative journalists through the progress of investigations.
