California Watch
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| Founded | August 2009 |
|---|---|
| Focus | Investigative Journalism |
| Location | |
| Method | Foundation and member-supported |
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Key people
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Robert Rosenthal, Executive Director of CIR Mark Katches, Editorial Director Christa Scharfenberg, Associate Director of CIR |
| Slogan | Bold new journalism |
| Website | californiawatch.org |
California Watch, part of the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, began producing stories in 2009. The official launch of the California Watch website took place in January 2010. The team is best known for producing well researched and widely distributed investigative stories on topics of interest to Californians. It works with many news outlets, including newspapers throughout the state, all of the ABC television affiliates in California, KQED radio and television and dozens of websites. The Center for Investigative Reporting created California Watch with $3.5 million in seed funding. The team won several industry awards for its public interest reporting, including the George Polk Award in 2012.
In 2009, the California Watch team began creating reports on statewide issues. The team’s mission was to highlight stories related to education, immigration, the environment, politics, public safety, and other areas of public interest.
At the time of its launch, California Watch had seven reporters, two multimedia producers, and two editors. The first editorial director of California Watch was Mark Katches. The reporting team included Lance Williams, who uncovered the BALCO steroids in sports scandal while an investigative reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle. California Watch started with offices in Berkeley and Sacramento, California.
California Watch hired three additional reporters in mid-2010. Among them was Ryan Gabrielson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on abusive practices in the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. California Watch shares its editors, TV producers, multimedia producers, news applications developers, data analysts and radio production with the Center for Investigative Reporting.
In March 2010, California Watch launched the “Politics Verbatim” website. The site tracked the statements and promises of the state’s candidates for governor, Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown. The site featured search tools, and users could sort statements by topic and geographic location.
Reporting targeted at younger audiences includes age-specific media, such as coloring books and finger puppet videos.
The Center for Investigative Reporting, which runs California Watch, depends largely on foundation grants and individual donors. It also charges for its content. California Watch publishes content on its website and also distributes content to other news outlets, such as The San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union Tribune, Sacramento Bee, Orange County Register, KQED, all of the ABC TV affiliates in California and National Public Radio. California Watch has an agreement with New American Media to help distribute translated versions of the team’s reports to ethnic news outlets.
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