Geoff Dougherty is a

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

journalist noted for founding two local news organizations, and for his work as a computer-assisted/quantitative journalist.

Career

''Chi-Town Daily News''

In 2005, Dougherty founded the nonprofit ''Chicago Daily News'', an online-only news organization devoted to hyperlocal coverage of Chicago neighborhoods. The name echoed that of the ''

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Doughert ...

'', a newspaper which had folded in 1978 and had been held in high regard by him. He even used

Craigslist Craigslist (stylized as craigslist) is an American classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums. Craig Newmark began the ...

to advertise for writers. The organization shortly changed its name to ''Chi-Town Daily News''. In 2007, it received $340,000 in funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to build a network of trained citizen journalists to cover their Chicago neighborhoods. The news organization won national attention for its business model and journalism, including coverage in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. and ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

''. ''Chi-Town Daily News'' attracted some criticism from traditional journalists, who argued that

citizen journalism Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, a ...

would encourage news organizations to lay off full-time, professional reporters in favor of unpaid volunteers incapable of producing high-caliber journalism. ''Chi-Town Daily News'' closed in September 2009, citing a lack of available

philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

funds to continue operations.

''Chicago Current''

In 2010, Dougherty and a group of former ''Chi-Town Daily News'' reporters launched ''Chicago Current'', an insider political paper modeled after ''

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...

''.

''Computer-Assisted Reporting''

Before launching the two online newspapers, Dougherty was the

computer-assisted reporting Computer-assisted reporting describes the use of computers to gather and analyze the data necessary to write news stories. The spread of computers, software and the Internet changed how reporters work. Reporters routinely collect information in dat ...

editor at the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'', where he undertook investigations on coal mining and food safety. Earlier, he served as computer-assisted reporting editor at the '' Miami Herald'', where he played a key role in the paper's investigation into the flawed presidential election of 2000, and the subsequent effort to examine and analyze all of the discarded ballots in Florida.

''U.S. News & World Report''

Dougherty is now a journalist for '' U.S. News & World Report'', performing quantitative analysis on health care-related topics. In 2015, he and Steve Sternberg reported on increased procedural complication rates for surgeries at low-volume hospitals. This led

Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and the

University of Michigan Health System Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan Health System or UMHS before 2017) is the wholly owned academic medical center of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan Medicine includes the Universi ...

to impose policies of minimum volume for certain procedures.

Education

Dougherty received his MPH from the

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. As the second independent, degree-granting institution for research in epi ...

, where is currently a PhD candidate. He has received a student award from ''The Mary B. Meyer Memorial Fund.''Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Honors and Awards. Accessed 2015-07-06.
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dougherty, Geoff Writers from Chicago American male journalists Date of birth missing (living people) Living people Year of birth missing (living people)