“It’s a cliché because it’s true: Investigative reporting is the core of the journalism that democracy requires to thrive,” said a recent article from the Nieman Journalism Lab.

The photo at left is of the last print edition of the New River Voice from April 2008. We’ve been online-only ever since, and the world of journalism has continued to change rapidly in that time. From thinking about our start as a print publication with an online component, I quickly ponder the direction in which we are now heading.

That direction has been dictated by you, the reader, who said in our most recent reader survey that you wanted to see more investigative journalism. In fact, 66.3 percent of survey respondents said they were “very interested” in investigative journalism while 31.3 percent said they were “somewhat interested.” Yes, almost everyone who responded to the survey answered affirmatively regarding investigative journalism.

Let me address that topic further by going back a few weeks to another Nieman article in which former Washington Post Executive Editor Len Downie said the for-profit model alone no longer can support the kinds of investigative, explanatory, and accountability journalism that society needs.

According to that article, “Big foundations and the public at large are warming to the idea that news organizations are deserving of their support, just like the symphony or any other nonprofit that contributes to society’s cultural assets. ‘There’s a question of whether there’s enough public realization,’ Downie said. ‘I think we’re heading to that direction. Awareness is growing steadily.’”

Awareness is growing steadily across the nation, and it is our job at newrivervoice.com to make sure that the awareness grows in Southwest Virginia as the Voice inches ever closer to a nonprofit model of journalism. As Downie addressed in the article: “Where will the money come from? Like other nonprofits, nonprofit news organizations will have to find the right mix of foundation money, grassroots support, advertising, and perhaps additional government support.”

But I’m not sure many people outside the journalism business understand the time and money required to do robust, public interest journalism. And that brings me to an example relatively close to home.

I recently mentioned the Bristol Herald Courier and its reporter Daniel Gilbert on the  Pulitzer Prize for Public Service won by the paper this month. The Pulitzer, obviously a prestigious award, represents, in this instance the epitome of dedicated community service and investigative work. Many traditional newspapers have just about ended such in-depth reporting because of the cost, so the Herald Courier is certainly to be applauded.

Today I read a column from Herald Courier Managing Editor J. Todd Foster. In it, he was taking The Washington Post to task for its recent post-Pulitzer coverage of Gilbert and the Herald Courier. I won’t get into their feud (though it sounds like Foster has some excellent points), but I did want to repeat for you what Foster said about the story that won them the big prize.

“There’s only one newspaper and media outlet in the country that could have done our natural gas series—the very one that did it,” Foster said in his column. “The Herald Courier and only the Herald Courier had enough of a vested interest in this region to spend 13 months researching such minutiae as mineral rights law in Virginia. The goal was to help disadvantaged landowners getting the shaft from state bureaucrats and gas companies. Only the Herald Courier would allow a reporter to drive more than 2,000 miles, spend hundreds of dollars in Freedom of Information Act requests and then send him to a week-long course on computer-assisted reporting at the University of Missouri.

“According to the Pulitzer jurors, we exceeded our goal. Among many new developments, the gas companies already have paid more than $1.1 million in delinquent royalties into an escrow fund for Southwest Virginia landowners.”

The above example illustrates the hard work, employee hours, and other costs associated with a public service story of major magnitude. I was so curious about those costs that I called Foster today to talk about it.

He said that Gilbert alone put roughly 1,000 hours into the story. Additional staffers (photographers, copy editors, layout and graphics folks, and Foster himself) combined to put roughly another 1,000 hours into the story. Gilbert’s computer-assisted reporting class was about $1,000. Foster said that the total cost of the story essentially equaled one full-time person’s time and salary for a year.

And you wonder why in tough economic times we’ve just about seen the end of such reporting in many places around the country?

We hope that the New River Voice can bring that type of reporting back to the NRV. Our affiliation with the new nonprofit community organization Freedom Foundation of Southwest Virginia (FFSWVA)—501(c)(3) tax-exempt status still pending—will be essential in obtaining the funding necessary to pursue robust, public interest journalism.

We invite you to come along on the ride with us. We’re not sure exactly what our future holds here at the Voice and with the FFSWVA, but as we often say, “We’re your Voice for the Valley.” We mean that.

We’ll still provide you with arts and cultural coverage. We’ll offer fun columns and other opinion pieces along with features and many other types of stories. And we want to greatly increase our education coverage. And we want to always hear from you.

We want you to be engaged. Join us on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. You can subscribe to the Voice via e-mail or RSS feed. Offer feedback to us and your fellow readers. Being online-only, it’s tough to get our name out. Tell your friends and family and coworkers about us. E-mail the link to this piece to your friends or post it online.

You said you wanted investigative journalism. We want to provide that as soon as we’re financially able. We take your opinions seriously. We welcome you as our partner in this exciting endeavor and we hope that you’ll find us worthy of your support.

Tim W. Jackson is a longtime journalism geek who wishes he could spend even more time studying current trends in the industry. He is Editor of the New River Voice.