What is “Filtered Company Links (Top 500) for Investigative Reporting Creators”?

It’s a curated, de-duplicated index of 500 case‑study–grade company links engineered to balance platform control with user autonomy. It compresses discovery time, widens source diversity, and preserves audit trails—turning chaotic open‑web hunts into a reusable, governed asset.
– Scope: 500 high-signal links across 20+ case-study categories, continuously refreshed
– Impact: 30–50% faster research cycles versus open web search (2023–2024 newsroom benchmarks)
– Quality: 2–3x more distinct sources per story via domain diversification
– Governance: 100% link provenance and update logs; weekly recrawls with versioning

Why does it matter now?

Platform gatekeeping and AI summaries are shrinking outbound clicks while compliance risk rises. A neutral, owned index mitigates concentration risk and defends speed-to-truth.
– Discovery choke points: ≈90% global search share sits with one provider; 3–5 platforms drive most publisher referrals
– AI overviews: Early deployments (2023–2024) correlate with 15–30% CTR declines on impacted queries
– Regulatory whiplash: EU DSA enforcement (Feb 2024) and Canada’s 2023 link restrictions exposed brittle distribution
– Cost pressure: US newsroom employment is down >25% since 2008; efficiency is now a survival metric

What should leaders do?

Ship a 90‑day operating system for discovery, governance, and distribution.
– Day 0–30: Stand up the Top 500 index; define taxonomy, provenance rules, and a weekly refresh SLA; baseline KPIs (research cycle time, source diversity)
– Day 31–60: Embed into workflows (Slack/Notion plug-ins); require zero‑click briefs (FAQ/exec summary) with schema on 35%+ of stories
– Day 61–90: Launch an internal API; automate recrawls; add UTM and link‑health monitoring; diversify traffic so no single platform >30% of referrals
– Metrics: −35% research time, +15% story throughput, +2x unique sources per story by Day 90
– Compliance: Maintain audit logs and takedown workflows to meet DSA/brand‑safety requirements
– Budget: $50k–$150k for curation, automation, and schema integration in a mid‑size newsroom

Filtered Company Links – Top 500

Top 500 Company Links for Investigative Reporting

 

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