Brant Houston holds the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Journalists from 25 nonprofit journalism organizations formed the first-ever investigative news network at a three-day gathering at the Pocantico Conference Center this week.

Pledging collaboration on both editorial efforts and business operations, the network created a steering committee to immediately pursue funding for a grant to develop plans for shared operational resources and for collaborations on major investigative projects.

The group also issued a declaration outlining the need for the network in a time of diminishing resources for investigations by the mainstream media.