Jim Heaney - Journalist Profile | Connect with top journalists

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Biography

Jim Heaney is the founder of Investigative Post and serves as editor and executive director. Heaney, 58, was an investigative reporter with The Buffalo News for 25 years before leaving the paper in August 2011 to start Investigative Post. The non-profit investigative reporting center launched in February 2012 and quickly established itself as a journalistic force in the community, thanks in part to its partnership with WGRZ TV news. Investigative Post also has established partnerships with WBFO FM, the NPR affiliate for Buffalo, and Artvoice, the region's alternative newsweekly. Heaney's investigative work and beat coverage at The News focused on government and urban and economic issues. His first major investigation for The News in 1987 documented racial discrimination and political cronyism at the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority. He pioneered the paper’s use of surveys to grade the performance of elected officials. In 1992 he exposed the city’s biggest slumlords and their lenient treatment by the city’s Housing Court. Next he produced an exhaustive analysis of Buffalo public schools, tracking disparities in student achievement and detailing the deplorable condition of many school buildings. After a stint as The News’ computer assisted reporting editor, Heaney joined the paper’s newly formed investigative reporting team and produced a series of investigations related to economic development, including the failings of the state Empire Zone program and the city’s squandering of federal block grant funds. He then turned his attention to state authorities, exposing waste and abuse at the Thruway Authority and New York Power Authority. In recent years, his investigation of Buffalo Common Council Member Brian Davis triggered a criminal investigation that resulted in his resignation and continuing legal problems that eventually landed him in prison. He and colleague Pat Lakamp exposed the city’s role in underwriting a failed restaurant in what became known as the “One Sunset” scandal and later turned up a myriad of problems at City Hall’s economic development agency, which lead to its dissolution. Heaney documented state Sen. Antoine Thompson’s use of state dollars to promote himself, and the seemingly safe incumbent was turned out of office the next time he stood for re-election. Heaney documented gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino’s lucrative dealings with government, history of generous campaign contributions and legal problems stemming from his company’s failure to maintain several high-profile downtown properties. Heaney continued to put a price tag on costly economic development subsidies, such as the ill-fated Verizon data center that involved tax breaks worth $2 million per job. “We have a lot of fine journalists at The News, but to my mind Jim was the point of the spear,” columnist Donn Esmonde said at a fete to honor Heaney upon his departure from the paper. “His determination, to paraphrase Mencken, to afflict the powerful who needed afflicting, raised the performance bar in our newsroom. I know that Jim was an example and a mentor to younger reporters. For the rest of us, myself included, he was a journalistic conscience, a constant reminder to tell the story the way it needed to be told, to not let anyone off the hook,” Esmonde said. Heaney has won more than 20 journalism awards and was a finalist for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for his series on slum housing. His investigation of Buffalo’s misuse of block grant funds won Governing Magazine’s national reporting award in 2005. More recently, the New York State Associated Press selected Heaney’s “Outrages & Insights” the best newspaper blog in the state in 2010. Heaney was a leader in the Buffalo Newspaper Guild for more than 20 years. He served on eight negotiating teams and was a recipient of the union’s Outstanding Service Award in 2009. Prior to joining The News in 1986, Heaney worked as a reporter and editor with The Orlando Sentinel, covering transportation, politics and local and state government. Before that he was publisher and editor of The First Amendment, a weekly paper he founded to serve Buffalo’s Kensington-Bailey neighborhood. Heaney attended St. Bonaventure University and graduated from Medaille College in 1977 with a degree in media communications. He grew up in the Town of Tonawanda and is a 1973 graduate of Kenmore East High School.

Content

Total articles 692

• Available on paid plans

  Granville car crash

  By Jim Heaney

  Mar. 24, 2025

• Available on paid plans

  Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula ranked hockey's worst owner.

  By Jim Heaney

  Mar. 18, 2025

• Available on paid plans

  The SAVE Act is a solution in search of a problem.

  By Jim Heaney

  Mar. 17, 2025

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Company Info

Investigative Post

Investigative Post is a non-profit investigative reporting center serving Buffalo and Western New York. It began publishing in February 2012 as an independent, non-partisan organization with a two-fold mission: to provide citizens with high quality investigative reporting and analysis on major issues confronting the community and train young journalists, particularly those of color, in the craft of investigative journalism.