Developing Sources

By Alec Klein
January 23, 2009

I’ve spent a lot of time sitting in dimly-lit bars, dingy hotel lobbies and remote restaurants that only serve bad food.

Such is the glamour of being an investigative business reporter, waiting for skittish sources to show up. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t. Either way, it’s incumbent on the reporter to be there. That’s one of the most important things about developing sources: Just making the effort to meet your sources face to face. This way, they can look you in the eye, size you up and decide whether they can put their story—not to mention their livelihoods or even their lives—in your hands.

Over the years, people have often asked me: How do you get people to tell you things that they shouldn’t? There is a heightened urgency today as business reporters—and investigative business reporters in particular—seek to get to the truth of the matter at a time when the economy is reeling, Wall Street as we know it is gone and corporate greed and scandal are a daily happenstance on the business page.

Based on my two decades in the business, I’ve come to this conclusion about the secret to developing sources: There is no secret. Anyone can do it. What it requires is trust. Your sources must believe and trust you. And trust and belief can only be developed over time—taking weeks, if not months—as reporters break bread and find a connection with their sources. There’s this, too: The reporter must be sure—and the sources must know—that the reporter is willing to go to jail to protect their identity. But it can be more complicated than that.

My tenet: The reporter must frequently protect their sources even when it means weakening the story. Not a popular practice. But that’s what I did when I conducted an investigation of the corporate credit-rating industry for The Washington Post.

In one part of my reporting, I spent months tracking down an example that was going to lead one of the stories of my three-part series. When I told one of my sources about it, he asked me not to use the example, even though he had not given me the information; he was concerned that the example could somehow lead someone to think that he had given me the information. Though it pained me greatly, given the huge difficulty I faced in confirming the example, I agreed not to use it. I told my editor, and to his credit, he did not give me a hard time about it. In the absence of that example, the story was indeed weaker but my source was safe. In the end, I made the decision based on a simple weighing of the scales: What was more important—my example or my source?

Another practice of mine that goes against the grain: To protect sources, sometimes you must let them go. During my Washington Post investigation of AOL’s finances, the lawyers for AOL threatened not only to come after me legally if we published the stories, but they also threatened to pursue my sources. When I told my sources about this, they were naturally concerned, and some went running for the proverbial hills, saying they no longer wanted any part of my story. There was nothing I could do, except this: Appeal to my sources’ sense of what was right—that is, to expose wrongdoing. Corny, yes. But true. And in the end, some of my sources agreed to stay in the story.

The next is obvious: Never threaten your sources. Almost as obvious: It’s usually better to reach sources after hours, on weekends and at home, when they’re off the clock. Less obvious: Don’t surprise them. Make sure they know what you’re planning to use from your conversations with them. Understand their motives. Empathize but don’t lose your objectivity. Don’t tape record—it’s a metal contraption that gets in the way—unless necessary. Hope for an on-the-record conversation but talk to them on background if there is no other way. And knock on doors.

Lots of doors.

If you happen to be covering a company as part of today’s financial crisis, there are other ways to build sources. For instance, you might start by checking a Bloomberg terminal for lawsuits involving the company you’re writing about. There, you might come across a former employee who might talk. Or try Yahoo!’s finance page, where you can click on “major holders.” There, you’ll find the top institutional shareholders of the company you’re writing about. Call them. Most won’t talk. But someone might. And these money managers tend to be in the know with access to management of the company you’re covering. That’s how it starts. Then you’re on your way.

Alec Klein is a bestselling author, award-winning investigative business reporter former of The Washington Post and now professor of journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Copyright © 2009 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism