ProPublica

A new venture backed by philanthropies will start publishing investigative journalism articles beginning next year, looking to fill a gap being left as newspapers cut costs amid weak advertising. The organization, to be called ProPublica, will be headed by Paul Steiger, who was managing editor of The Wall Street Journal until earlier this year, the group said in a statement Monday. ProPublica will be based in New York and operate with a budget of about $10 million a year. But by the time it's fully staffed in 2008, it will employ 24 full-time reporters and editors. The group will officially launch in January. ProPublica will provide its articles free of charge through its own Web site as well as to leading news organizations. Richard Tofel, a former Dow Jones & Co. executive who will be general manager of ProPublica, said the group does not yet have arrangements with news organizations to publish the articles it produces.