ProPublica Goes Live, Quietly

Earlier today, ProPublica, the journalism non-profit created to shore up the newspaper industry's dwindling investigative resources, went live on the web.

"Five months ago, ProPublica was an idea, a rudimentary Web site and a nearly empty office in Lower Manhattan," write Paul Steiger and Steve Engelberg in an introductory note from the editors. "Today, we take our first concrete step in building an investigative publishing platform that will produce original stories focusing on betrayal of the public trust and abuse of power."

Regular features on the site will include a daily roundup of enterprise stories from around the web and a "Scandal Watch" that will track the five hottest investigations of the moment.

Steiger and Engelberg also promise that ProPublica's own investigations will begin appearing "soon." (Later this month is the unofficial word.) "Our longer 'deep dive' stories will most often be published in cooperation with one or more partners. These stories will usually debut on our partners' sites, but we'll link to their treatment of the stories, and often supplement them with additional materials for the web."