Huffington Site Starts Project to Investigate the Economy

Original Source

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Huffington Post said Sunday that it would bankroll a group of investigative journalists and make the nation’s economy an initial priority for coverage.

The Web site is collaborating with The Atlantic Philanthropies and other donors to create the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, with an initial budget of $1.75 million.

That should be enough for 10 staff journalists who will primarily coordinate coverage with freelancers, said Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post.

Work that the journalists produce will be available for any publication or Web site to use at the same time it is posted on The Huffington Post, she said.

The Huffington Post Web site is a collection of opinionated blog entries and breaking news. It has seven staff reporters.

Ms. Huffington said she and the donors were concerned that layoffs at newspapers were hurting investigative journalism at a time when the nation’s institutions need to be watched closely. She hopes to draw from the ranks of laid-off journalists.

The Huffington Post leans liberal, but Ms. Huffington promised that the work done by the investigative fund would be nonpartisan. The group would be discredited quickly if it put out faulty information, said Nick Penniman, the fund’s executive director.

”We care about democracy, not Democrats,” he said.

The Huffington Post venture is reminiscent of ProPublica, a nonprofit independent newsroom financed by The Sandler Foundation and headed by Paul Steiger, former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. ProPublica works with a $10 million budget.

Ms. Huffington said she hoped to encourage others to finance similar ventures.