This week, the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is releasing “Reinventing Journalism,” Executive Director Robert Rosenthal’s personal account of joining CIR and launching California Watch, its statewide investigative team.

As he says in the opening paragraph, Robert had no idea what he was getting into when he walked into CIR in 2008. “Reinventing Journalism” is his personal account of finding his way: from working as a copyboy to reporting assignments around the world, to being in the ring for the collapse of the traditional media business model, to seizing the opportunity to create a new kind of journalism organization, to his own evolution from journalist to what he calls “salesman/evangelical entrepreneur.”

Rosenthal also writes about the launch of California Watch – how the distribution and impact of its first stories exceeded his wildest expectations – and addresses the search for sustainability, looking forward to the future of investigative reporting and the non-profit model. 

A free copy of “Reinventing Journalism” can be downloaded to your digital reading device through Project Gutenberg. It will be available soon at iTunes and the Google eBookstore.

As part of “Reinventing Journalism”, Rosenthal also identified “10 lessons learned” about his time at Center for Investigative Reporting. 

We hope this report, written at Knight Foundation’s request, will help other nonprofit reporting ventures, and shed light on where the rapidly changing landscape of journalism and investigative reporting might be headed.