National journalism group honors two NC McClatchy investigative reporting projects
Investigative Reporters & Editors, a national group supporting investigative journalism, has recognized two watchdog projects that McClatchy’s North Carolina newsrooms published in 2022.
Big Poultry, published in December by The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer, received a 2022 IRE Award. The series gave readers a deep look at how secrecy cloaking this state’s largest agriculture sector obscures its scope and impacts on people and the environment.
Observer investigative reporters Gavin Off and Ames Alexander and N&O environmental reporter Adam Wagner led the reporting over many months, with assists from N&O investigative journalists David Raynor and Tyler Dukes.
“This series shows in graphic detail the human and environmental cost of the rapid expansion of the poultry industry in North Carolina. The articles also show that the state intentionally keeps its citizens in the dark,” an IRE judge wrote. “Caught in the middle of this are the contract farmers who are taking on massive debts to build and equip their farms, only to learn that the companies can take away or limit their access to income almost at a whim.”
Security for Sale was a revelatory look at the rise of investor buyers transforming homes into rentals in North Carolina urban areas, especially in Charlotte. Published by both newsrooms in May, it was named a finalist for the same 2022 IRE award in the newsrooms’ circulation category.
N&O investigative reporter Tyler Dukes, former Observer investigative reporter Payton Guion and Observer growth and development reporter Gordon Rago led that reporting. It required diving into millions of rows of data to identify 40,000 homes across the state purchased by North Carolina’s largest corporate landlords and shoe-leather reporting in and near Charlotte and Raleigh.
The investigation turned up neighborhoods where the companies owned a significant percentage of houses; first-time homebuyers with little hope of competing against Wall Street money, a rent-backed financial instrument created by firms to rake in more money, as well as frustrated tenants and neighbors.
“While this story is very much localized, it’s about a topic with national importance and implications. The investigation found that, in the space of a decade, corporate landlords had gone from owning nearly zero houses in North Carolina to owning more than 40,000. Superb mapping work combined with human narratives made the story both readable and compelling,” and IRE judge wrote.
Visual journalists from both newsrooms and McClatchy’s Investigations and Enterprise Graphics team expanded the storytelling in both projects with photography, video, graphics and animations.
If you have a tip about an issue needing investigating in North Carolina, McClatchy’s NC I-team wants to hear about it. Email us at investigations@charlotteobserver.com or investigations@newsobserver.com
