It’s a great day for the citizens of our region. Today, the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University has a new partner, the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. For several months, we have been working with John Christie, the recently-retired publisher of the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, to help him establish a center similar to ours. As John notes on his website’s homepage: http://pinetreewatchdog.org,: “In recent years, most newspaper and broadcast news outlets in Maine have reduced newsroom staffs through layoffs, early retirements and attrition. One of the ?rst victims is in-depth journalism — stories which often take one or more reporters “off the street” for weeks or even months. Serious coverage of the electoral and legislative process has also suffered. In Maine, statehouse coverage has declined from about 20 year-round reporters in 1989 to 10 in 1999 to the current ?ve.”

Unfortunately, those words can be written about every New England state. While the numbers vary, the main point is the same. The future of serious, in-depth investigative reporting in New England is in jeopardy. That’s why we launched NECIR-BU a year ago this week and that’s why we’re working with reporters in the other five New England states to support efforts to create nonprofit investigative reporting centers. We’re part of a movement to ensure the survival of watchdog journalism. It’s no exaggeration to say that without watchdog reporting democracy is at risk. The beneficiaries of this movement are the citizens of New England, who deserve to have reporters working on their behalf to hold the powerful accountable.

When we launched the New England Center for Investigative Reporting here at Boston University back in January, we had no idea we would be part of what now seems like a revolutionary movement to ensure the survival of investigative reporting in this country…but that’s what’s happened.

During the same week we started operations, so did a center in Madison, Wisconsin. There are now two nonprofit investigative reporting centers in California, one in Seattle, Denver, Houston, and even a for-profit center just getting started in New Jersey.

Journalists across the nation are beginning to envision their future not in traditional newspaper or TV and radio newsrooms but in the offices of these new models for doing journalism. The movement has given birth to a network that now links state centers like ours with long-standing non-profit investigative reporting groups like The Center for Public Integrity in Washington and The Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco. Collaboration is a key word. We’ll all be working together on reporting projects and in figuring out ways to ensure sustainability.

In our case, being an integral part of a university journalism program, students are fully engaged in our work—21 so far and it’s just the beginning. We are not only doing investigative reporting in collaboration with our media partners we are training a new generation of diggers. Our effort and those of the other investigative reporting centers are not just about journalism. We are here not just to change the course of the journalism profession. We are here because we truly believe that without a watchdog—the extra set of eyes envisioned by our founding fathers when they put in place the First Amendment–our democracy is at risk. The New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University exists for you–the people. We will hold the powerful accountable on your behalf. That’s our promise and we’re asking that you join us in this mission.