The last edition of The Spark (for now)

Hi there,

Some sad news to start. This will be the last edition of The Spark – for now, at least.

As you’ll probably know from our emails, website and social media, funding journalism is no easy feat. We rely on foundations for the majority of our funding, alongside donations from readers – including our brilliant membership community, the Bureau Insiders. 

We did manage to reach the target for our recent Big Give Christmas crowdfunding campaign – thanks to the generosity of many of you – and will be continuing with our investigations. But there is still an acute pressure on our teams and unfortunately we are not able to continue producing The Spark as we have been.

If you enjoyed reading The Spark and want to help take some of the pressure off, then please support our work. You can donate regularly and become a Bureau Insider. You’ll be signed up to Uncovered, a weekly email about our investigations, and also our members-only newsletter, Classified.

We hope to return in the future, but for now, I wanted to highlight some of my favourite editions from the past year. And you can access our full archive for free here.

Counting the dead and making it count

First, one that’s close to our hearts at TBIJ, as I got to speak to Matt Tunde at the Museum of Homelessness about their work counting those who die homeless. This is a project that started in 2018 when my colleagues started the count, recording the names, ages and stories of everyone they could find who died without having a fixed address. I also talked to Surfing Sofas, a poet who writes and performs poetry about homelessness – definitely one to add to your playlists.

Handing power back to women harmed by gambling

Next, this issue really dug into how journalism can work for a community. Greater Govanhill magazine is at the cutting edge of community-led journalism, and their work to get women who’d been harmed by gambling to tell their own stories is incredible. I occasionally spy the odd journalist on my subscribers list – this is a great edition to get inspired by for your own newsroom. 

How one woman brought down an abusive app

This one comes with a warning: it concerns the nonconsensual sharing of intimate photos and mentions child sex abuse imagery. But it’s an incredible story of what one person can do with enough determination. After her friend had intimate photos hacked and shared without her consent on an app available to anyone on the App Store, Mariko Tsuji tracked down the company – and the men – behind it. Her empathy and conviction are remarkable, and pretty heroic. 

Giving names and faces to the unknown dead

In an edition from February (so, if you’re new here, you may have missed it!) I talked to Roland Hughes and Victoria Shepherd from Locate International, a fascinating organisation that investigates cases where people have died, but no one has been able to identify them. They refuse to let these people go forgotten, digging into every detail. It’s deeply moving.

He dug up the truth about where millions of their money went

Finally, I’ll leave you with a great story from my very own newsroom here at TBIJ. My colleague Gareth Davies has spent years investigating a multi-million pound fraud perpetrated on Thurrock council in Essex – and the rogue businessman who made away with the money. The consequences for the community have been dire, with tax rises and service cuts rolled out to make up for the massive hole in the council’s finances. Talking to Sam Byrne, who helped found the campaign to save Thurrock’s arts centre, the Thameside, was amazing – not only was it inspiring to hear how Gareth’s work had empowered a community, but it was fantastic to see how they organised in response, taking matters (and hopefully soon the Thameside itself) into their own hands.

I’d like to leave you with this fantastic article on maybe one of my favourite ways journalism has changed the world: by providing great names for bands and awesome titles for songs. Specifically, here the ICIJ goes through all the pop culture pick up on the Panama Papers, the incredible collaborative investigation that exposed thousands of offshore shell companies and the people, companies and governments using them to hide assets and avoid taxes. 

It’s a Christmas cracker of a read. Or, if you prefer, just dig into the playlist on Spotify.

Thank you all for your support over the past couple of years. You don’t have to unsubscribe to The Spark, we’ll be in touch if and when we’re back. You can stay connected with what the Bureau is doing by signing up to Uncovered, our weekly email about our investigations. You can find us on your social media platform of choice, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Insta, Bluesky and X. And if you want to let us know how you feel about these changes to The Spark, you can reply to this email. 

For now, it’s so long – but hopefully not forever.