ProPublica: Fully Staffed by June

On the heels of this morning’s announcement of six more hires at ProPublica, we spoke with general manager Richard Tofel and new senior writer Eric Umansky about the future of the organization.

Tofel told us that ProPublica has announced 12 staffers, roughly half of the final number. An additional “two to three” job offers have been accepted but not announced, while “two or three” more offers have been tendered, he said. “We hope to have full staff agreements by the end of June, but we won’t have [staffers] in-house by then.”

Umansky and Sheri Fink have already started, while Joaquin Sapien and Christina Jewett will begin in two weeks, and Susan White and Abraham Lustgarten are still in negotiations.

Umansky, whose position will involve writing for and helping to oversee the Web site, says ProPublica will work with two distribution models. It will do long, in-depth reports with a news organization parter brought on in the “pretty early stages,” as well as put its own reporting online. The Web site will also “keep the drumbeat going” with follow-ups of longer stories written by ProPublica and other news organizations, Umansky said.

He argued the definition of success would be the “impact” of the investigations. “We don’t advocate policy, but when you have a story that enters into public debate, that’s when accountability measures kick in.”

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