The promise of a newspaper’s investigative spinoff

The latest edition of American Journalism Review has an in-depth piece on the thinking behind the San Diego Union Tribune's to spin off (though that's not the official phraseology) its investigative team as an independent nonprofit.

Rather than wait for the ax to fall on her four-person team, investigative editor Lorie Hearn did the deed on her own terms - terms that allow her team to publishing their work in the UT, but also getting the team off the publisher's books.

Rather than wait for the ax to fall on her four-person team, investigative editor Lorie Hearn did the deed on her own terms - terms that allow her team to publishing their work in the UT, but also getting the team off the publisher's books.

As part of the new relationship, the UT will pay the new nonprofit a substantial amount of money. In return, the UT gets first dibs on a specified number of investigative stories. But Hearn also has freedom to shop the story around to other media - and to develop her own philanthropic base. She already has one major donor.

Although the article does not make the connection, it notes that Hearn is negotiating with a representative of Platinum Equity, the Beverly Hills buyout firm that recently bought the UT and currently is bidding for the Boston Globe.

Can this kind of partnership help work, for both journalists and publishers on a broader scale? We'll see. But Hearn clearly sees the arrangement as a win-win.

"I'm not abandoning the Union-Tribune," Hearn tells AJR. says. "I am actually doing this because I want to help it survive."

This post also may be viewed at the Nieman Journalism Lab.