Investigative journalism is practiced across commercial, nonprofit, digital, print, broadcast, and educational settings. The figures below combine the IRE survey of investigative journalists with organizational reports from ProPublica, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and OCCRP, keeping each measurement period and source distinct.
Contents
- Who works in investigative journalism
- Newsroom structure and working conditions
- Pay, nonprofit work, and job outlook
- Tools, story origins, and reporting results
- Diversity and training pipelines
- Funding, local reporting, and public impact
- Global investigative networks
Who works in investigative journalism
The IRE survey was sent to 3,520 members: 3,112 professional members, 250 academic members, and 158 associate members. It received 541 completed questionnaires, an overall response rate of 15.4%. The professional-member response rate was 15.9%, with 497 professional respondents. These response figures describe the survey group, not all investigative journalists.
Respondents averaged 47 years old and 20.6 years working in the business. They averaged 12.6 years doing investigative work. About 54% were women, nearly all were college graduates, and a little less than half had attended or completed graduate school. About 56% majored in a journalism-related field.
The survey also recorded respondents’ backgrounds and views. About 60% were raised Christian, while about 60% said religion was not important in their lives. Nearly 64% identified as Democrats or independents closer to Democrats, compared with 49% in 2013. Only 4% identified as Republicans or independents closer to Republicans. A total of 73.8% described their political views as liberal or very liberal, compared with 65.5% in 2013.
More than 20% of respondents identified as non-white, compared with 13% in 2013. About 70% identified as white, 8.1% as Hispanic or Latino, 6.7% as Black or African American, 6.7% as Asian or Asian American, and 6.3% as multiethnic. In 2013, 87% of respondents identified as white. (IRE survey of investigative journalists)
Newsroom structure and working conditions
Employment arrangements varied. The IRE survey found that 75.4% of respondents were paid employees, 16.4% were freelancers, and 15.0% were educators. Among paid employees, 45.4% were assigned full-time to an investigative team, 11.2% worked part-time on one, and 43.4% did investigative work alongside other duties. Overall, 68.3% said their organization had a standing investigative team.
The newsroom mix included 25.6% working in print newsrooms and 37.4% in digital-only newsrooms. Market size also differed: 53.8% worked in markets of 1 million people or more, 23.2% in markets between 100,000 and 1 million, and 9.2% in markets under 100,000. The supplied survey figures do not account for every respondent in these subgroup descriptions.
Respondents’ evaluations of newsroom diversity were mixed. Some 47.5% rated racial and ethnic diversity in their newsroom as fair or poor, while 58.7% gave that rating to political diversity. For diversity of sexual orientation, 32.5% rated their newsroom fair or poor. Only 15.6% of women respondents rated their newsroom highly on gender diversity, compared with 24.5% of men.
Perceptions also varied by race. Some 23.3% of white respondents rated racial or ethnic diversity in their newsroom as very good or outstanding, compared with 31.3% of Black respondents. These are respondents’ assessments of their own newsrooms, rather than an external audit. (IRE survey of investigative journalists)
Pay, nonprofit work, and job outlook
Income was uneven across the survey group. Some 13.6% reported incomes below $40,000, while 34.6% reported incomes above $100,000. The share reporting incomes above $100,000 was 27.7% among women respondents and 43.1% among men. By medium, the corresponding figures were 43.6% for broadcasters, 34.7% for digital respondents, and 30.5% for print respondents.
At least $60,000 was reported by 58.3% of print respondents, 80.3% of broadcasters, and 78.5% of digital-only respondents. Nonprofit and for-profit respondents were close on this measure: 80.6% of nonprofit respondents and 78.6% of for-profit respondents earned $60,000 or more.
More than a third of surveyed investigative journalists worked in nonprofit news organizations, up from about a fourth in the previous survey. In the detailed results, 35.7% said they worked at nonprofits, and 60.8% of nonprofit respondents had moved from commercial newsrooms. The average time working at a nonprofit was 4.6 years.
The largest reported workplace complaint was insignificant or little impact, cited by 20.5%. Another 16.0% cited a lack of opportunity and the daily grind, 14.8% cited too many hours, and 14.2% cited low pay and benefits. Even so, 82.9% reported a great deal or complete freedom in selecting story topics, and 82.9% were very or fairly satisfied with their jobs.
Outlook indicators were divided. Some 67.9% said their organizations were headed in the right direction, while 55.9% said journalism as a whole was heading in the wrong direction. A total of 60.5% said their organization’s commitment to investigative reporting was as strong as a year earlier, and 76.5% said time spent on investigative work had increased or remained stable over the previous five years. Still, 45.2% said it was harder to get resources, and 52.9% said it was harder to get time. (IRE survey of investigative journalists)
Tools, story origins, and reporting results
The survey measured how often journalists used reporting and analysis tools. At least once a month, 70.4% used spreadsheets or database software, 68.2% made formal public-records requests, 55.5% downloaded raw data sets, and 55.5% requested raw data from government sources. Social media was used for crowdsourcing by 45.7% at least monthly, while 41.7% used Google tools.
More specialized tools were less common. Some 23.1% used statistical, geographical, or network analysis tools at least once a month, and 16.6% used a programming language at least once a month. Separately, 74.7% agreed that social media had been beneficial to investigative journalism.
Reporter enterprise or curiosity accounted for 42% of story origins. Tips from the public accounted for 23%, tips from sources for 20%, and editors’ assignments for 14%. The survey also recorded reported outcomes:
| Reported outcome | Current survey | 2013 survey |
|---|---|---|
| Stories led to official investigations some or most of the time | 58.9% | 69.3% |
| Stories led to criminal charges filed | 23.6% | 29.8% |
| Agreed investigative reporting requires moral decision making | 84.6% | 88.4% |
Nearly half, 49.8%, disagreed that investigative reporting requires setting aside objectivity at some point and taking a position on stories. The IRE survey found that 66.3% were very or fairly optimistic about the future of investigative reporting, while 36.2% said news media in general were as committed to the field as they had been a year or two earlier. (IRE survey of investigative journalists)
Diversity and training pipelines
The ProPublica 2024 diversity report describes a newsroom that grew from 172 full-time employees at the start of 2023 to 186 in 2024. Its Diversity Committee included more than 50 ProPublicans. Of 21 positions filled in 2023, 50% of interviewed candidates identified as women and 36% identified as part of a racial or ethnic group other than solely non-Hispanic white. About 67% of hires identified as women, while 29% identified as part of a racial or ethnic group other than solely non-Hispanic white.
At the start of 2024, 62% of all ProPublica staff identified as solely non-Hispanic white, and 54% identified as female. Half of the organization’s 14 board members identified as women, while 64% of ProPublica directors identified as non-Hispanic white.
Training and early-career support formed another part of the report. Eleven people were selected for ProPublica’s investigative editor training program from more than 150 applicants. More than 50 early-to-mid-career journalists attended its alumni virtual meetup. ProPublica sponsored five journalists to attend the annual IRE convention. Its Emerging Reporters Program provides a $9,000 stipend and supports five students. The IRE diversity scholarship supports journalists, students, and educators from diverse backgrounds. (ProPublica 2024 diversity report)
Education also appeared in the IRE survey. Among educator respondents, 14.8% taught a stand-alone required course on investigative reporting, 43.2% taught a stand-alone elective, and 28.4% taught investigative reporting as part of another course. Another 13.6% worked at an institution that did not offer investigative reporting instruction. (IRE survey of investigative journalists)
Funding, local reporting, and public impact
The Fund for Investigative Journalism said it funded 140 new investigative projects in 44 states in 2024, describing that total as far more than at any time in its 55-year history. Stories published with FIJ support sparked 46 changes to policies and practices. FIJ provided free editorial or legal help to 67% of supported journalists.
The work was strongly local and freelance-oriented. Some 79% of FIJ-supported stories focused on state and local issues, 32% of supported journalists were journalists of color, 64% were women, and 80% were freelancers. From grants made in the previous two years, 114 stories or series had been published, and 67% had already helped spark impact. Those impacts included 46 practice changes by governments or corporations, nine official investigations or audits, 14 state and local policy changes, six federal policy changes, 10 bills or packages of reforms pending in state legislatures, and six lawsuits or indictments. (FIJ 2024 Impact Report)
ProPublica reported that it covered all 50 states and had received nine Pulitzer Prizes. Its five-year plan included an expanded Washington, D.C., bureau and a 50 State Initiative intended to energize local journalism. (ProPublica 2024 annual report)
Global investigative networks
OCCRP’s 2024 annual report provides a view of international scale. Its stories helped prompt 17 government investigations and 89 arrests and law-enforcement actions in 2024. OCCRP said its reporting helped drive $800 million in seizures and fines.
The network connected 71 media outlets worldwide, with more than 70 media member outlets and regional partners, more than 50 publishing partners, and more than 200 team members around the world. Fifteen new member centers joined in 2024. OCCRP’s network had more than 55 editors across six continents, and its largest annual network gathering hosted over 240 journalists, editors, and technologists.
Its audience and infrastructure figures were also substantial. The OCCRP YouTube channel reached 100,000 subscribers, and more than 4 million people watched its documentary The Chilling Story of Serbia’s Human Slaughterhouse. OCCRP reported an annual budget of $24.1 million and more than 100 stories and investigations a year.
Data capacity was central to the organization’s work. OCCRP ID fielded more than 1,360 requests, while its research and data team handled over 1,300 requests in 2024, trained more than 100 journalists, and powered over 40 stories. OCCRP Aleph contained more than 4.4 billion entities and had more than 24,100 users in 2024. The organization also said its AI/ML work supported document, media, and large-dataset analysis. (OCCRP Annual Report 2024)
Safety, pressure, and public trust
The IRE survey found that 59.5% of respondents felt safe or very safe in their jobs, while 11.8% felt unsafe or very unsafe. Safety perceptions differed across groups: 68.3% of male respondents felt safe or very safe, compared with 52.5% of women respondents. The corresponding figures were 62.1% for white respondents, 54.0% for Hispanic or Latino respondents, 52.0% for Black respondents, and 47.6% for Asian respondents.
Threats, abuse, or violence were reported at different frequencies. Some 43.1% said they had not experienced them online or offline, 12.9% experienced them once, 36.3% a few times, and 7.6% monthly or more frequently.
Views of journalism’s public role were also cautious. Some 27.3% thought news organizations were doing a poor job supporting democracy, and 41.4% thought they were doing a fair or poor job informing the public. Meanwhile, 36.7% believed the public was becoming increasingly antagonistic toward investigative journalism, and 49.2% believed the public was becoming increasingly indifferent to the field. (IRE survey of investigative journalists)