The story behind the NYT’s financial incentives story

Jackie Faye of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism’s “Covering Business” interviewed Louise Story of the New York Times about her investigative series on financial incentives that states give to companies to entice them to move their operations.

Here is an excerpt:

Faye: Was there an ah-ha moment in your reporting?

Story: The biggest thing was when I figured out how I could quantify it. I was really trying to get a figure showing what it costs the state. When I started going to the states, they started saying because of taxpayer confidentiality we can’t give it to you for all the companies. Then, I had this insight that, wait a moment, I’m really trying to get the one-year cost figure, I could get costs from the states in aggregate without forcing them to identify the companies. When I had that insight that there was another way to come at the data I think it allowed me to come up with something really useful and different from what had been out there.

Faye: Did you have to do any interviews off the record?

Story: No, this was really the kind of project that all the questions absolutely should be answered on the record. We are talking about public money here. I had to be persistent and stay on these offices. In the end it was 1,800 programs I was getting figures for, and each one was often its own request. So that was a lot to keep track of.

Read more here.