Jim Barnett is a former contributor to the Nieman Journalism Lab. He worked 20 years as a newspaper reporter, first at The News & Observer and the last 10 years in the Washington bureau of The Oregonian. As a graduate student at the University of North Carolina in the mid-1980s, he studied under Philip Meyer, and attempted in 2005-06 to launch a nonprofit newsroom that would cover federal and state government using the principles of Meyer’s seminal work,
Precision Journalism. He is currently a senior strategic advisor to the AARP. Email him at
journalismnonprofit@gmail.com.