At a GIJC25 session editors who have conducted ground-breaking collaborations shared their experiences — including how to divide work, distribute resources, and manage reporting with outlets that have differing publishing rhythms.
This article was originally published by the Global Investigative Journalism Network on March 11, 2026. It is hereby reproduced by iMEdD with permission. Any reprint permissions are subject to the original publisher. Read the original article here.
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Leading investigative teams in different parts of the world, with varied cultures and approaches, is a challenge even for veteran editors. At a GIJC25 session titled “Editorial Leadership Best Practices for Cross-Border Collaborations,” editors who have conducted ground-breaking collaborations shared their experiences — including how to divide work, distribute resources, and manage reporting with outlets that have differing publishing rhythms.
Arnaud Ouédraogo, coordinator of the Norbert Zongo Cell for Investigative Journalism in West Africa (CENOZO), Brigitte Alfter, founder and director of the Arena for Journalism in Europe, Gerard Ryle, executive director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and María Teresa Ronderos, director of the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (El CLIP), shared 11 lessons learned — and two common mistakes — from serving as lead editor of a cross-border investigation. Justus von Daniels, editor-in-chief of CORRECTIV, moderated the session.
You need one vision for a story, not a collection of parallel national stories
Journalists will most likely be focused on their own country’s story, but it’s your job to make sure a common approach, theme, and topic guide the collaboration. “It’s not about collecting a bunch of stories from different countries which are only important for that country,” said El CLIP’s Ronderos. “It’s about telling a story that makes sense because it shows tendencies and trends in the whole region.” An impact measure of success for your collaboration could be if your investigation feeds a shared public discourse in the countries and regions covered.
Collaboration is not just about the investigation: build audiences together, share resources and data, and support smaller outlets
There will be some outlets that are able to dedicate one journalist for six months to an investigation, and there are others that must manage with their four-journalist newsroom. When lead editing a cross-border investigative team, you should be mindful of balancing what each member of your team is able to deliver. Guide those with more resources into supporting newsrooms with less and make sure data is fluidly shared between all members of the investigation.
Collaboration can protect journalists who run too great a risk by publishing alone
“If you are alone publishing a sensitive story, it is certain you will be threatened. They can take you and put you in prison. So together was the right way to be strong, to be safe, and to have a global or regional impact with the stories,” said Ouédraogo, explaining how collaborations with CENOZO have kept journalists safe in Africa. Be aware of which members of your team might be particularly vulnerable to attacks and intimidation tactics and take steps to protect them, such as keeping their names off of bylines or using another of your collaboration partners who are less exposed.
When you receive similar pitches from different countries, merge them into one collaborative project
If you have a regional or global collaborative newsroom, you might receive the same pitch or topics from journalists in different countries. Consider putting them under the same project and reach out to other journalists who might encounter the same problem in their countries — often you will find the same issues connect across different regional newsrooms.
Start collaborating with all your media partners from the outset
“If you want to do cross-border investigations, you need to bring all of your media partners with you every step of the way,” said Ryle, of ICIJ. “That’s when we started going directly to reporters and getting them involved at the beginning.” This is especially important if you’re touching on very local topics or working in rural areas. Make sure you take on board one of the local newsrooms that operate in that area, so that the story is also published in the region you’re talking about and can have a greater local impact.
Don’t assume you always need leaks to start investigating; hints and source suggestions can be enough
Investigative journalism sometimes relies too much on official leaks for revelations. Be open to starting a collaborative project with data such as names and locations, or even just backchannel conversations from sources. Although you might find nothing from your inquiry, you could also hit on a story.
Don’t break your story too soon
Some stories might be too close to breaking for them to be worth pursuing. If you only have a few days or weeks to put together a team, research, and publish, because whatever you’re talking about will become public knowledge soon, it might be better to pass on trying to assemble a large reporting project.
Practice radical collaboration: no asymmetry between Global North and South, listen, and support all reporters equally
Work with some of the differences that come up between Global North and South newsrooms. Perhaps the newsrooms in the South have more direct access to the sources and environments you’re reporting on, while the newsrooms in the North have more resources and better cybersecurity systems. One can make up for the things that the other lacks. “We even had a team among the partners to go and review the safety of every website that was going to publish that story, to make sure that if they had a DDoS [distributed denial of service] attack or some other kind of attack, they were robust enough to support it,” said Ronderos.
Every collaboration takes longer than you expect
Expect collaboration projects to take at least three times as much time as you estimate initially. “When you’re working for one newsroom, you might do something in a month. If you’re doing a collaboration, it’s three months minimum,” said Ryle.
Over-communicate: clear rules, clear goals, clear plan from the start
Communication is key in cross-border collaborations. Have clear and frequent communication with efficient and secure channels. All members of the team must know the goals, rules, and the project plan.
Find journalists skilled in the topic and built for collaboration. Not everyone works well in teams
Some journalists are team players, some are lone wolves, some are better at old-fashioned reporting, and others are up to date with the latest data journalism tools. Be aware of your team’s strengths and weaknesses, and be sure that everyone on board wants to conduct a team-based cross-border investigation.
Even veteran editors make mistakes. Don’t make these:
Being unprepared: use MOUs, contracts, and clear agreements
You might want to rush into reporting and start the exciting part of the job, but make sure you have the boring part done beforehand. Cover your bases legally and bureaucratically by drafting a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and any other partnership agreements. “By now we are much more aware of making good sound agreements, making MOUs or whatever we call it, making contracts, planning ahead — to prevent complete massive failures,” said Alfter of the Arena for Journalism in Europe.
Not sharing data, giving credit, or leading by example.
It’s up to the team’s leadership to give all members and organizations the credit they deserve. Be aware that for small organizations, a public collaboration with a large outlet could be a big visibility boost. Also, enable and encourage data sharing among journalists, and set up a system for that to happen efficiently. “If you’re sharing a dataset, if you find something in the dataset, you have to let everybody else on the team know right away. You’ve also got to be really fair with other things like making sure that everyone gets credit for the work that they’re doing,” said Ryle.
Cross-border investigative journalism is no longer an exception; it’s becoming a standard for investigations that seek to expose wrongdoing that transcends borders. But doing transnational collaboration the right way means planning ahead and executing well long before the publication date.
Watch the full GIJC25 session below.
