The Voice of Baltimore

Conversations with Stephen Janis are often interrupted by his cellphone. The former investigative reporter at the Baltimore Examiner newspaper never stops taking calls and meeting sources, and not even the newspaper's folding in February slowed him down. Having covered stories in Baltimore City like the murders of prostitutes and the arrest of a seven-year-old for sitting on a dirt bike, Janis can't stop now.

Perhaps he's become completely mired in the ills of the city; perhaps he is fully unemployable in any other field. But once laid off from the newspaper, he took his leads, his sources, and his obsession with unearthing the real story, and launched his own online news organization, Investigative Voice. After just two months, the website has broken stories that were picked up by the local television media.