Dhrumil Mehta

Hamilton’s research and calculation show that documenting the impact of journalism sometimes requires using different metrics. It also reminds journalists and journalism entrepreneurs that finding appropriate metrics that reflect their mission helps test their logic model and justifies spending and fundraising.

Stanford Professor James Hamilton in his 2016 book “Democracy’s Detectives” suggests that the market has failed to convert the value of lives saved by investigative journalism into equivalent subscription or advertisement revenue. As a result, news outlets that focus on financial returns would find themselves lacking incentives to generously fund investigative journalism. In his book, Hamilton uses a unique approach to calculate the costs to a news organization of prod…