Mavericks Owner Cuban Backs Investigative Business Journalism Site

By Kevin Sweeney
June 16, 2006 01:50 PM

To probe the "criminal subculture in the securities industry," the investigative business journalism Web site ShareSleuth.com that is backed financially by Mark Cuban will be launched next month.

Cuban, outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team, has made numerous appearances on CNBC to discuss his various business ventures and has also touched on journalism on his blog.

One of Cuban's companies, HDNet Films, was involved in the production of "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," a documentary based on the book by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind of Fortune.

Christopher Carey will leave the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to launch the Web site next month and will relocate to Ann Arbor, Mich., where he had a Knight-Michigan fellowship in the past academic year.

The site will build on the stock fraud and corporate malfeasance coverage Carey became known for during his tenure at the Post-Dispatch. He was a 2005 Gerald Loeb Awards finalist for a series on stock fraud.

"The securities industry is certainly ripe for more coverage," Carey says. "Not many papers spend enough time with it because they are localizing news and these stories are national in scope. Big changes in journalism caused me to look at what I could do to continue document-heavy, investigative reporting."

The relationship with the Mavericks owner came about after Carey responded to one of Cuban's blog entries with some additional information. Cuban then expressed interest in Carey's offer of collaboration.

Aside from Carey's original work, ShareSleuth.com will feature contributions from freelancers, researchers and burned investors themselves.

"Doing this online creates a canvas that is both national and international," Carey says. "There are so many documents and resources available via the Internet. It's a great reporting medium."

With the movement online, ShareSleuth.com will encompass a multimedia approach that will push the interactive side of investigative journalism.

"With Cuban involved, it's not going to be a traditional journalistic enterprise," Carey says. "He has much more experience in the online world and with multimedia than I do. He will be using this as a platform for other multimedia activities."

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism