Mark J. Rochester was announced Wednesday as the new editor-in-chief of Type Investigations, the investigative reporting arm of Type Media Center.
He told TheWrap exclusively, “Aside from the logistics of newsgathering and making sure all the reporters and editors working for us during this pandemic are healthy and safe, I want to expand or build upon our partner network.”
“Well, organization management and senior editorial leadership have been doing an outstanding job communicating clearly with staff, fellows and freelancers we work with over the last several weeks to stress that everyone’s first priority is to stay healthy and protect themselves and families,” the veteran journalist added. “Working remotely is itself a difficult logistical challenge in any professional environment, and it is especially daunting when trying to conduct accountability journalism that depends so much on building sources, obtaining documents and data on sensitive, complex issues.”
The Type Investigations team under Rochester, who takes over March 30, will focus on other issues beyond the current pandemic, he noted: “And while we’ll be reporting on the crisis and its fallout, we’re going to continue pursuing the other issues that are core to Type’s mission — election integrity, economic inequality, corporate malfeasance, under-regulation, criminal justice issues and other issues — we remain committed to those subjects as well.”
Rochester was formerly the senior news director for investigations at the Detroit Free Press and, before that, served as executive editor of the Rock Hill Herald and deputy managing editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Type Media Center (formerly The Nation Institute) encompasses several programs and a community of hundreds of journalists, authors and writing fellows. The center includes a bestselling book publishing imprint, Bold Type Books (formerly known as Nation Books), and the award-winning Type Investigations (formerly known as the Investigative Fund), among others.
“One important benchmark for me will be to broaden the reach of our investigative reporting so that stories conducted along with our partner newsrooms reach the largest possible audiences, so that the impact of that storytelling has the greatest chances of spearheading concrete change,” said Rochester.