Bob Paynter: Rent-a-reporter

Former BJ staffer Bob Paynter, who took a buyout from the PlainDelar last year,. says it’s an industry that can no longer support the investigative reporting he did at the Akron Beacon Journal and the Plain Dealer. Sitting outside a coffee house on Cleveland’s west side, he recalls that work was rooted in some ideals that he developed over thirty years ago. Here’s the interview with station WPCN.org

BOB PAYNTER: Keep in mind, I’m of an age, immediately post-Watergate, so I’m one of those people who went, thinking, “Woodward-Bernstein, look what they did. Wow, the sky’s the limit.” Journalists could really play a role, make a difference, save the world. Those kinds of things.

The Plain Dealer...and other large newspapers...still do investigative work...uncover corruption...expose abuses oif power. But, it is expensive. Paynter says he was a “cost center” because his reporting involved hours of digging through public records, finding a thread that connected the thousands of dots in front of him, and writing it all up in a way that the average person could understand. That work often takes months to yield a single story…an investment fewer papers are willing… or able… to make.

BOB PAYNTER: It just became clear to me that the future was limited --- if there was a future at all. And I was 58, and I’m thinking, “I’ve still got some miles on the tires, and I want to try something else.” And there was a modest buyout offer on the table, and I decided to take it.

So, what do you do if you’re a guy who likes to comb through haystacks for facts…piece together details and get to the bottom of something? What’s the next career move for a person with those skills? Would you believe…private investigator?

BOB PAYNTER: I call myself “Investigative Communications, LLC”. It’s a fancy way of saying “investigative reporter for rent.” I’ll look stuff up, I’ll find stuff out, I’ll write it up if you want it.

One of his early clients was an attorney representing someone who had gotten bilked in a real estate scam. Rooting through public records on a case like that wasn’t far removed what he had been doing as a journalist for years. Still, it isn’t the same.

BOB PAYNTER: I guess what I’m doing now is intellectually engaging…it keeps me busy…it brings in some revenue…but it doesn’t engage the soul. And, at the moment, I’m not really missing that. But I think I will.

Read an earlier post on Paynter from January, 2009