Data Journalism Won't Save The News Business

Data visualizations and statistical analysis are enabling a renaissance of reporting. The industry might not survive it.

For an industry closing out its second decade of crisis, there was a palpable optimism at the recent Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) conference in San Francisco. This year has seen the big-budget launches of Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight, Ezra Klein's Vox.com and the New York Times' The Upshot. IRE was packed with reporters eager to learn how data visualization and other technologies could make them better storytellers, drive traffic and win prizes. From the windowless hotel basement where our sessions took place, you could see a world in which serious news businesses could regain control of their destinies.

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