By Alex Barinka
Matt Apuzzo epitomized how I always imagine an investigative reporter. He spoke 1,000 mph though I’m sure his brain was working faster, he was animated and spoke with passionately waving arms, and he was so excited when he talked about the benefits of using documents.
Geeze, sounds a little bit like someone else I know (yep, that would be me).
Apuzzo, an AP reporter and member of the Washington investigative team, gave us some tips and tricks and more than a few laughs, too, in the Society of American Business Editors and Writers session on investigative reporting from conception to execution.
“We are in the answering questions business.” You are going to get lost in the weeds without a question in mind. Instead of writing about how the government is fixing bridges, you should address the question of whether the government is fixing the bridges that are in the worst shape.
- “You don’t operate heavy machinery without reading the manual.” If you are covering a company, a municipality, an industry, don’t jump into it without knowing anything about it. You wouldn’t start pulling the gears and levers of a crane without knowing what they do first.
- “Write the manual yourself.” Write the manual for your readers, and get input from those who know the machine intimately. A list of living sources: company execs, lawyers (inside and outside of the company), former execs and lawyers, analysts, politicians, economic developers, competitors, whistleblowers, suppliers, employees, retirees, associations, contractors, unions, shippers, regulators, lobbyists, accountants and major customers (phew!).
- “All the best conversations start in a bar.” Have candid conversations with sources (unless, of course, it is supposed to be confrontational). Apuzzo says his daily ideal would be breakfast with a source, lunch with a source, coffee with a source, drinks with a source, ect.
- “Don’t use analysts for their analysis. If you’re covering this beat, you already know all of this stuff.” Apuzzo read quotes from analysts published recently, and they all state the obvious. Use analysts for their in depth knowledge of the company, its accounting, fishy goings on or their relationships with employees.
- “Even the mob writes stuff down.” There are more documents out there than we realize. The two questions Apuzzo always asks after an interview is, “Who else should I be talking to, and where is that written down?”
- “Spurned spouses and people who are owed money do not hold back.” Law records, including bankruptcy and divorce records, are not used as often as they should be.
- “I’ll have what he’s having! Give me those!” File Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the FOIA request logs. See what other journalists, whistleblowers and companies want to see, and then request for them yourself.
- “Know an industry and find where it intersects with the government because that is where stuff gets written down.” File FOIA requests for agencies related to business or industries. File for information on things that are taxed because it is recorded. File for contact information listed on the documents.
- “Every 3 months I would drop a FOIA request for all the email and all the calendars.” File for policymakers calendars and phone records to see who they talk to (or which reports they are calling!).
- “Now you’ve got your CEO’s phone number because his Schnauzer is important to him.” If your area has a dog licensing database, file for that, too! Many seemingly obscure documents may have contact information on an elusive source.
Alex Barinka is a business journalism student at UNC-Chapel Hill who will intern this summer at Bloomberg News. Read the rest of her coverage here.
