When the Center for Public Integrity partnered with American Public Media's Public Insight Network (PIN) in November, "we weren’t quite sure what to expect," writes Cole Goins, the center's deputy web editor, "but the initial results in just two months have been tremendous." The PIN comprises more than 90,000 participating "citizen sources" that have signed up to help reporters nationwide.
So far, the center has reached out to the sources for two stories: looking for persons living near coal power plants, and others whose credit card use has changed over the past year. In all, reporters received about 230 responses offering valuable information and generating several stories.
"Our first use of the network turned out to be a resounding success," Goins notes.
