Brant Houston is an investigative journalist who has worked on editorial and business strategies with dozens of nonprofit newsrooms and has co-founded two major networks of those newsrooms.

He entered the nonprofit world when he became the executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), a journalism association now with more than 5,000 members.

He served in that role for more than a decade until he became the Knight Chair in Investigative Reporting at the University of Illinois in 2007, where he  also oversees the online newsroom at Illinois, CU-CitizenAccess.org, which does watchdog and community reporting and is a lab for digital innovation and data journalism. 

While at IRE he raised millions of dollars for conferences, operations and an endowment fund. In 2003, he co-founded the Global Investigative Journalism Network, which now has 250 nonprofit newsrooms in 90 countries as members, and still serves as the chair of its board of directors. In 2009, he co-founded the Institute for Nonprofit News and served as its first board chair.

Houston is the author of five editions of the textbook, Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide, and co-author of the fourth, fifth and sixth editions of The Investigative Reporter’s Handbook.

He recently wrote Changing Models for Journalism: Reinventing the Newsroom, which incorporated much of his 30 years’ experience in the nonprofit world of journalism. He has taught and spoken about investigative and computer-assisted reporting at newsrooms and universities in more than 30 countries.

He currently serves on the boards of the nonprofit newsrooms Block Club Chicago, Investigate Midwest, Investigate West, and The Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism.

Sue Cross is a media development adviser and journalist specializing in the reinvention of news. 

From 2015 to 2024, Cross spearheaded development of the U.S. nonprofit news sector as CEO and executive director of the Institute for Nonprofit News. Under her leadership, the INN Network grew to more than 450 news organizations fielding more than 4,000 journalists, and funneling more than $13 million a year in strategic philanthropy and investment to newsrooms serving thousands of communities.

Today she advises journalists, civic and community leaders, social entrepreneurs and philanthropists on how to reinvent and support news as a public service, through startups and new approaches, and  helps news entrepreneurs develop revenue to support a public mission and strong, independent news coverage.

Cross previously worked for the Associated Press. As senior vice president, she ran the global 

news agency’s business throughout the Americas,  following a career as reporter, editor and digital product and business executive.

Cross serves on boards including Stanford University’s John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships, the State Court Report at the Brennan Center for Justice and Block Club Chicago.  

She is based in Los Angeles, California, USA.