CASE STUDY
Lipman Center – Columbia Journalism School
Columbia University recruited The TASC Group to amplify the launch of their Uncovering Inequality project, deliver its findings to national reporters for use in future reporting and elevate Dean Jelani Cobb as a thought leader.
The Challenge
After George Floyd’s murder and subsequent protests in the summer of 2020, Dean Jelani Cobb and Columbia Journalism School’s Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights convened a group of top social scientists from Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins and the University of Chicago to author a comprehensive report on the history of systemic inequality in the United States in housing, health, policing, economics and education. Intending to equip journalists with resources to cover inequity within their beats, Columbia University recruited The TASC Group to amplify the report and deliver its findings to national reporters and editorial boards for use in future reporting. TASC also worked to establish Dean Cobb and the Lipman Center on a whole range of race and inequality issues across the country.
Our Strategy
TASC concentrated on connecting the reports’ broader findings to current racial equality issues and identifying reporters covering stories in the major areas covered by each report and ensuring that they could incorporate elements of the report in their reportage. With a schedule of proactive pitching and a keen eye on breaking news, TASC identified and pitched issues-based reporters covering beats that aligned with the project’s five reports. TASC introduced Cobb and project researchers to local, regional and national reporters through brown bag meetings and strategic outreach. TASC provided the embargoed reports to reporters across various sectors at top national outlets.
Results
TASC placed Uncovering Inequality’s embargoed reports with over 40 outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, The 74 and Chalkbeat. TASC’s media outreach established Jelani Cobb as a national thought leader on racial equity and promoted the Lipman Center ahead of the announcement. TASC introduced project researchers to editorial boards at The Washington Post, The New York Times and Boston Globe. When Uncovering Inequality was published in March 2023, the project received positive feature stories in USA TODAY, Forbes, Education Week, CBS-NY and Yahoo! News among others. The reports continue to inform reporters at national, state and regional outlets across the country.
100 MILLION
MEDIA IMPRESSIONS
40 OUTLETS
SECURING THE REPORTS
100
MEDIA HITS
MEDIA COVERAGE
