Piercing the veil: Reporting on businesses that want nothing to do with you

IRE 2022

  • Nicole Einbinder, @NicoleEinbinder, neinbinder@insider.com
  • Aaron Mendelson, @a_mendelson, aaron.a.mendelson@gmail.com
  • Bowdeya Tweh, @BowKnowsBiz, bowdeya.tweh@wsj.com

Many great investigative stories examine companies that don't want their name in the news — often for good reason. But even with uncooperative subjects, reporters and editors can dig up a wealth of information on newsworthy businesses. This panel will examine how records, data, sources and more can help power that reporting.

  • How to Find Sources
  • Tools/Websites to Use
  • Records

HOW TO FIND SOURCES?

  • Find former employees on Linkedin via the “past company” search (get Premium through Linkedin for Journalists webinar)
  • Social media (Facebook/ Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Glassdoor)
  • Look up the company’s address on Instagram Geotag to see if any current/ former employees tagged themselves at the office
  • Build rapport with sources to get visibility on discussions on Corporate Slack/intranet channels or from all-hands meetings
  • Court records, including civil, criminal, and bankruptcy records
  • Attorneys can act as gatekeepers to sources
  • Not all court records are available online, or are in court dockets. Some of the best stuff, like depositions, often isn’t. Reach out to attorneys and court clerks to make sure you’re getting everything
  • Ask existing sources who you should contact! Tell the existing source you don’t have to disclose to the new person how you got their information, if that’s more comfortable for them
  • To build sources on employees at companies, think about developing relationships with people at local chambers of commerce, young professionals groups and other networking organizations
  • Make friends with janitors, executive assistants and other folks who know the water-cooler talk or are close to it
  • Strive to have a relationship with company PR, even if they make it hard, aim for fairness and avoid only crisis calls (if in a beat)
  • Family members of corporate executives — particularly ex-spouses or extended family who may have different political beliefs — can be a goldmine. Offer to talk offer the record, if necessary
  • Contractors and others who do business, or used to do business, with the focus of your reporting often know important details

TOOLS/ WEBSITES TO USE

  • Westlaw, RocketReach, Spokeo, Lusha (chrome extension)
  • Pacer for federal court records
  • FollowTheMoney.org for campaign finance data
  • SEC EDGAR database for information on public companies
  • PitchBook, Crunchbase for information on private, venture-backed companies
  • State Secretary of State business filing searches. Some states (like Florida) offer great search functions. Others are more limited

RECORDS

  • Local and federal court records (not always available online; call the court to confirm the records exist and then go in-person)
  • Incorporation records (Delaware Division of Corporations)
  • Regulatory boards at state and local levels (Pharmacy boards, boards of education, parole board)
  • Data on citations/violations/enforcement actions can help you get a sense of if your business is cited at disproportionate rates
  • Patent/trademark filings
  • Get the entire, raw state databases of business filings. This will often be millions of records, and will allow you to connect the dots on large businesses that have a low public profile, and will point you to executives, officers, attorneys affiliated with business
  • A complete list of business entities (corporations, LPs, LCCs) will help with your court searches and public records requests
  • Submit record requests to federal agencies (and the state counterparts) regarding the company you’re investigating
  • OSHA, Federal Trade Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, Police and fire records (911 logs and incident reports), etc.
  • Don’t forget to ask for email, written, and other communications for potentially revelatory details about the company
  • Public universities and school districts are fair game. Does your company/ founder have a relationship with a public university?
  • Non-profit records (Form 990s are the best starting point) for any orgs your company/founder may be associated with
  • Property records. What buildings does the business you’re investigating own? Where do the executives live?
  • Always ask sources for records to corroborate their claims. They can also be helpful in pinpointing exactly what kind of records you should be requesting via public record requests
  • Records can be memos, Google calendar invites, text messages, screenshots of posts on internal message boards, etc. Everything isn’t going to be a PDF or print out.
  • Be very careful when seeking records from sources or to corroborate information. You want to avoid directing their actions, especially if they are passing along sensitive information
  • Lean toward encrypted comms, and coach sources on data and information-sharing hygiene