California Watch was launched this fall by the Center for Investigative Reporting, and in a few short months, we’ve built the largest investigative reporting team in the state. Our logo represents sunlight where it is needed most – shining on our government, our politicians, our business leaders.
We made a splash in September when we produced our first big story – one that ran on the front page of about two dozen California newspapers with a combined daily circulation of 1.8 million. Several online partners also ran the piece by G.W. Schulz examining waste and questionable spending in the state’s homeland security grant programs. KGO-TV in San Francisco collaborated with us as well.
The distribution of our first story exceeded our wildest expectations. We followed up with two more packages – one in November on class-size reduction and another in December on the influential campaign donor Stewart Resnick, who has made some very close friends in high places.
But we turned most of our attention these past few months to building the new Web site that you see today. It includes close to 20 searchable databases that allow readers to check campaign contributions, lobbying disclosures and stimulus contractors among others. And it includes a Resources section that serves as a guide to anyone wanting to pursue their own watchdog reporting.
There are days when being an editorial director is a lot like an air traffic controller. I keep a spreadsheet of all our active investigations. About a half dozen stories should be landing in the next couple of weeks.
We have more than 35 active investigations underway right now – stories that are being pursued by our investigative reporters and a stable of outstanding freelancers. These stories will sustain us for some time to come.
We're extremely proud of today's launch and hope you like what you see. But we also realize that today marks Day One. We expect to evolve, to grow and to improve as we go.
I’ll leave you with our mission statement, developed by our editorial team:
California Watch, a nonprofit and independent investigative reporting team, exposes injustice, waste, mismanagement, wrongdoing, questionable practices and corruption so that those responsible can be held to account and so the public can be armed with the information needed to debate solutions and spark change.
It's a big statement, and we pledge do our best every day to fulfill it. Please let us know how we’re doing. And shine a light on us if you think we’re falling short. We would expect nothing less.
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