On The Project Management of Investigative Journalism

[danieldwilliam]

I am genuinely curious about what is actually driving the timing of the news reports about Russell Brand.

I very definitely do not mean, what Establishment Secrets or Deep Truth was Brand about to reveal that meant that he needed to be silenced.

I mean, what’s been the project plan for the investigative journalism, the investigation and research, interviews, verification, editorial and legal review. How does that all work. Why has the story broken this weekend and not a weekend last spring or next spring?

Comments

[danieldwilliam]

If you are correct (and I think you are) then, yes that's the interesting question.

It would make the project schedule really contingent and judgemental. If the main driver of publishing or not is whether the lawyers are comfortable that publishing the story won't lead to big legal liabilities then the timetable is in the lap of their judgement and any contingent items that they consider important. Those feel like they are going to be bespoke to each set of stories and not necessarily linear. Three cross-corroborating accounts might be sufficient but perhaps not if you have doubts about whether one of the complainers will stick the course or might not be a credible witness in court. Four might enough to publish today but if you think a fifth complainer is close to agreeing to be included you might hang off until they are committed.

You could spend months finding 4 or 5 or 6 complainers and then very quickly get them to a point where they are all comfortable or (more likely) have to spend many many more months winning trust in a complex network of mutual support and journalistic and editorial credibility.