Did Washington Post Series on Chandra Levy Lead to Suspect’s Arrest?

Who says investigative journalism is dead! Yes, it may be getting cut right and left but this is a great example of why newspapers/investigative reporting (in one form or another) are so important…

From Poynter.com:

A Sacramento TV station is reporting that Chandra Levy’s parents received a call from authorities Friday afternoon notifying them that an arrest would be coming soon in the 2001 murder of their daughter.

A Washington, D.C., station said D.C. police “submitted evidence to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in an effort to get an arrest warrant” for Ingmar Guandique, identified in a 13-part Washington Post series as a suspect whose possible role in the crime was given less attention by law enforcement than the possible role of then-California representative Gary Condit.

In published notes about the series, the Post says, “The reporters discovered that the police investigation was overwhelmed with the white-hot media coverage fueled by the possible involvement of Rep. Gary Condit, a congressman from California.”

Condit granted his first interview about the Chandra Levy case to Post reporters Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham.

The reporters also spoke with officials involved in the original investigation, two women attacked by Guandique, and Guandique himself.

France to help its failing newspapers

From NPR.com:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he will give $800 million in emergency aid for the country’s failing newspaper industry. He wants to boost the newspaper reading habits among young people in France, but many of them think the French press has too much opinion and not enough reporting.

Listen to their report HERE.

Newspaper of the future

What will the newspaper of the future look like?

According to the American Journalism Review it will look like this:

A smaller, less frequently published version packed with analysis and investigative reporting and aimed at well-educated news junkies that may well be a smart survival strategy for the beleaguered old print product.

Read the rest of the AJR article HERE.

This is a great topic for discussion for newsrooms (newspaper and TV) and in college classrooms. How would students change newspapers to save them with the threat of the internet? How will the changing media affect TV news and what would students do to make it competitive?