Chi-Town_Daily_News

Geoff Dougherty

Geoff Dougherty

American journalist

Geoff Dougherty is a Chicago journalist noted for founding two local news organizations, and for his work as a computer-assisted/quantitative journalist.

Quick Facts Geoffrey Dougherty, Nationality ...

Career

Chi-Town Daily News

In 2005, Dougherty founded the nonprofit Chicago Daily News, an online-only news organization devoted to hyperlocal coverage of Chicago neighborhoods. The name echoed that of the Chicago Daily News, a newspaper which had folded in 1978 and had been held in high regard by him.[1] He even used Craigslist to advertise for writers.[1] The organization shortly changed its name to Chi-Town Daily News. In 2007, it received $340,000 in funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to build a network of trained citizen journalists to cover their Chicago neighborhoods.[2]

The news organization won national attention for its business model and journalism, including coverage in The Washington Post.[3] and Boston Globe.[4] Chi-Town Daily News attracted some criticism from traditional journalists, who argued that citizen journalism would encourage news organizations to lay off full-time, professional reporters in favor of unpaid volunteers incapable of producing high-caliber journalism.[5] Chi-Town Daily News closed in September 2009, citing a lack of available philanthropic funds to continue operations.[6]

Chicago Current

In 2010, Dougherty and a group of former Chi-Town Daily News reporters launched Chicago Current, an insider political paper modeled after Politico.[7]

Computer-Assisted Reporting

Before launching the two online newspapers, Dougherty was the computer-assisted reporting editor at the Chicago Tribune, where he undertook investigations on coal mining[8] and food safety.[9]

Earlier, he served as computer-assisted reporting editor at the Miami Herald, where he played a key role in the paper's investigation into the flawed presidential election of 2000, and the subsequent effort to examine and analyze all of the discarded ballots in Florida.[10]

U.S. News & World Report

Dougherty is now a journalist for U.S. News & World Report, performing quantitative analysis on health care-related topics. In 2015, he and Steve Sternberg reported on increased procedural complication rates for surgeries at low-volume hospitals.[11] This led Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and the University of Michigan Health System to impose policies of minimum volume for certain procedures.[12]

Education

Dougherty received his MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where is currently a PhD candidate. He has received a student award from The Mary B. Meyer Memorial Fund.[13]

References

  1. [1]
    Steve, Johnson (12 Sep 2005). "Chicago Daily News II: This Time It's Digital". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  2. [2]
    "Chi-Town Daily News". John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  3. [3]
    Howard, Kurtz (1 Apr 2009). "Web Sites Like Chitown Daily News Find Opportunities When Newspapers Go Bankrupt". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  4. [4]
    Diaz, Jonny (14 May 2009). "Online upstarts deliver news without the paper". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  5. [5]
    "Daily News wins $340,000 grant". Chi-Town Daily News. 23 May 2007. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  6. [6]
    Taliaferro, Tim (11 Nov 2009). "Chi-Town Daily News Abandoning Non-Profit Model In Shakeup". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  7. [7]
    "What's happening with the Chi-Town Daily News?". Chicago Reader. 8 Feb 2010. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  8. [8]
    Jackson, David. "Safety is casualty as firms chase profits in coal country". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2013-05-14.
  9. [9]
    Jackson, David (10 Dec 2001). "Schools Flunk Food Safety". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  10. [10]
    "Who, what, when, where and how of this review". USA Today. 2001-04-03. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  11. [11]
    Sternberg S and Dougherty G. "Risks are high at low-volume hospitals." The US News and World Report. Published 2015-05-18. Accessed 2015-07-06.
  12. [12]
    Sternberg S. "Hospitals move to limit low-volume surgeries." The US News and World Report. Published 2015-05-19. Accessed 2015-07-06.
  13. [13]
    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Honors and Awards. Accessed 2015-07-06.
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