The state of Investigative Post

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Investigative Post enjoyed a dramatic growth in our audience in 2025, our 13th year in business. 

Pageviews on our website topped 1 million for the first time: 1,390,934 to be precise. That total nearly equaled our traffic for the two previous years combined. 

While our traffic is small compared to the legacy news outlets in town, it’s more than respectable considering we typically publish only one story a day. Our competitors are akin to department stores; we’re a boutique. Our per-story audience stacks up well with the competition, as does our impact.

Our growth in traffic was driven in part by our coverage of ICE’s aggressive enforcement actions against immigrants in Western New York and maltreatment of detainees at the agency’s detention center in Batavia. J. Dale Shoemaker produced more than 25 stories on the topic last year. ICE-related stories accounted for nine of our 20 most-read stories we reported in 2025. 

Our top story of the year, voted on by readers, was written by Geoff Kelly on the hit-and-run exploits of D.J. Granville, Erie County’s narcotics chief. My personal favorites of Geoff’s, in addition to the Granville story, include his piece on developer Doug Jemal’s failure to pay contractors. Dale’s best work included several immigration-related  stories, including one on the detention of migrant families in makeshift cells along local border crossings for up to two weeks at a time. He also penned several killer stories on wage theft involving both a highly subsidized restaurant operator in Niagara Falls and employers across Western New York. I also really liked Adam Smith-Perez’s story on the City of Buffalo’s indifferent response to the opioid epidemic.

These stories and others contributed to the growth in our audience. We increased our audience on social media, as well, adding accounts on TikTok and Bluesky to augment our activity on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We also enjoyed substantial growth in traffic on our YouTube channel, in part driven by the introduction of short-form videos featuring our reporters talking about their stories. 

Geoff and I continued to produce weekly newsletters, which enjoy a loyal readership. Geoff, in his PoliticalPost, frequently breaks stories, which we republish to the website. (You can subscribe here.) 

Our reporters continued to appear regularly on WKBW 7 News and we share stories with the Niagara Gazette and contribute pieces to Challenger Community News. We also added a number of news organizations we collaborate with to distribute or co-report stories, including the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, The Intercept, the Investigative Journalism Bureau, and Documented. In addition, The New York Times and Marshall Project reached out to us this past year to publish select stories involving investigations they produced on state matters.

We relaunched our event series in the second half of last year. Our annual benefit concert at the Sportsmen’s Tavern, featuring Tom Toles and Junkman’s Choir, drew a record crowd of about 300. An event in November focused on ICE and immigration drew a similarly sized audience at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo. Last month, Geoff and I interviewed then Mayor-elect Sean Ryan at the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

We’re working on a full lineup of events for the coming year. Stay tuned.

Our staff underwent some changes. Geoff stepped up to associate editor, while retaining his reporting responsibilities. Adam joined the reporting staff in July via the Report for America program. He’s primarily covering urban affairs. Our other urban affairs reporter, I’Jaz Ja’ciel, left us in November.

Denise Ambrusko-Maida joined us part-time in November as development administrator. Her previous experience includes director of development at the Irish Classical Theater and a community manager at the American Cancer Society.

We also added freelance help. Jason Silverstein is producing videos and advising us on social media matters. A Buffalo native, he previously worked as a producer and social media manager with CBS News and social strategy editor with The New York Times.

Seamus Gallivan joined us in the fall as our events manager. He is co-founder of Slow Roll Buffalo and operates Reconnecter, which produces events and media to promote social connection.

Finally, we had a strong fundraising year. We attracted new donors, both big givers and small, and saw many existing donors increase their level of support to our nonprofit newsroom.

Our focus for the coming year begins with several initiatives to continue to increase our revenue so we can hire more reporters and expand our coverage.

All the other established media in town are scaling back their newsrooms — or treading water, at best — so it’s important that we grow to close at least part of the growing gap and provide the community with accountability journalism that is increasingly hard to find elsewhere.

I assumed direct responsibility for fundraising two years ago and have gained a clear idea of what needs doing to take our efforts to the next level.

Support from small donors — those giving under $1,000 — continues to grow and I want to substantially increase their numbers. Given the large donor base enjoyed by Buffalo Toronto Public Media, we have a lot of room to grow.  (You can donate at this secure link.)

I also want to substantially increase the ranks of our large donors, now headed by the Rowboat Family Foundation and the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.

Events are another revenue source we hope to grow.

There is also the statewide effort by nonprofit outlets, including digital newsrooms like Investigative Post, along with PBS and NPR stations and public access channels, to obtain state support in line with the financial help extended two years ago to newspapers.

With additional money in hand from our assorted fundraising efforts, I hope to add to our reporting staff  and continue to build on our efforts to incorporate video and other visual elements into our storytelling. We’ll also be upgrading our website and expanding the number of news organizations we partner with.

We won’t lack stories to cover. There’s a new mayor in City Hall. The continuing impacts of the Trump presidency on Western New York. The continuing struggles of neighborhoods on the east and lower west sides. The frequent follies involving efforts to recharge our  stagnant local economy. Political shenanigans of all sorts. Etc.

The ongoing effort to obtain no-strings-attached state funding has nonprofit news outlets across the state talking to each other like never before. I’m hoping it will lead to collaboration on a number of fronts, including marketing, fundraising and the production and distribution of stories. A lot of outlets are producing top-notch journalism that deserves a wider audience.

There are some 20 digital nonprofit newsrooms operating in New York that are focused on local and state matters, along with about a dozen NPR outlets. There are also a number of outstanding university journalism programs, starting with the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. There is much to be gained if we work together and part of my focus in the coming year will be to promote that collaboration.