Center for Public Integrity mulls merger or closure amid serious financial difficulties

Center for Public Integrity mulls merger or closure amid serious financial difficulties

The Center for Public Integrity, one of America’s oldest and most historic nonprofit newsrooms, is considering merging with a competitor or closing amid top turmoil and financial difficulties that have exhausted its reserves significantly, according to two people with knowledge of the organization’s internal workings.

The nonprofit fell about $2.5 million short of its budget goal of about $6 million for 2023, according to the two people, who would speak only anonymously to protect their relationships within the organization. .

This month, Paul Cheung, the organization’s chief executive, resigned after an employee accused him of unethical behavior. The board also eliminated the position of its editor in chief, Matt DeRienzo, who left the nonprofit.

In a statement, the Center for Public Integrity said it had a “financially difficult past year” like many other nonprofit media organizations.

“The board remains committed to CPI and its essential mission, and is working hard to determine the best path forward for our journalism,” the nonprofit said in a statement. In a statement, Mr. Cheung denied any wrongdoing.

The financial peril facing the Center for Public Integrity threatens to extinguish a newsroom of about 30 journalists that has monitored powerful institutions for decades. Much of its funding comes from foundations interested in supporting investigative journalism, including the Knight Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

As its reserves dwindle, its board of directors is contemplating drastic measures to address the situation. The Center for Public Integrity explored a possible combination this year with The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that publishes technology research, but it never came to fruition. The organization has also sought reductions in its 2024 budget, three people familiar with the discussions said.

Many newsrooms have fallen on hard times amid a tough market for advertising and subscriptions. Several, including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times, have laid off staff.

Founded by investigative journalist Chuck Lewis in 1989, the Center for Public Integrity has won numerous awards for its journalism, including the Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for an investigation into a rigged system that deprives coal miners of health care benefits. . Last year, he won the Edward R. Murrow Award for General Excellence.

Along the way, she pioneered a model of investigative journalism that served as a model for the next generation of nonprofit newsrooms. Over the next three decades, several nonprofit organizations, including ProPublica and the Marshall Project, followed in her footsteps.

“CPI was a very important news organization in shaping modern nonprofit news,” said Richard Tofel, former president of ProPublica. “What Chuck Lewis really innovated was a dedicated staff who would conduct long-running investigative work aimed at stimulating widespread coverage in the hopes of creating change.”

Before Cheung resigned, he was the center of a human resources complaint that included a Slack message he sent to another employee telling him they needed to “come up with some money” for a presentation at a foundation. After the message was sent to human resources, according to the complaint, Mr. Cheung edited his message to say “explain some $$$,” which the complaint said was “a significant change to alter the meaning and the intention of his writing”.

Cheung, in a statement, denied misrepresenting the nonprofit’s finances to its staff, board and partners. He added that he had “worked diligently to ensure the sustainability of the organization.”

“The CPI faces many of the same economic obstacles that many of our peers have been facing since the pandemic,” he wrote.

The Center for Public Integrity investigated the incident and found no evidence of financial irregularity, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Employees have also expressed displeasure with the nonprofit’s lack of communication about financial instability and its business plan. In a December letter to the nonprofit’s board, its staff said morale was low in several departments due to a decline in trust that led to “a rift between our executive director and the editorial team.” “.

“That collapse is taking us down a catastrophic path, both financially and culturally,” the letter said.

Several nonprofit newsrooms have explored mergers in recent years to bolster their journalism and make a more compelling pitch to potential funders. In December, Mother Jones said it was merging with the Center for Investigative Reporting, an investigative news organization co-founded by Lowell Bergman, a former investigative producer for “60 Minutes.”

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John C. Johnson

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