Max Hartshorn has signed on as the Investigative Journalism Foundation’s new technology manager, bringing a passion for public service reporting and a decade of experience marrying tech and news.
Max joins the IJF after 10 years at Global News, most recently as a web development team lead. He helped make digital news a priority for the newsroom, and played a role in building globalnews.ca to become the second most-visited news site in Canada.
He said he’s excited to join an organization with a mission to produce quality investigative and data journalism.
“Journalism in Canada is in a state of crisis and I don’t think anyone has the answer. But the most innovative work I’ve seen is coming out of small newsrooms, non-profits and startups, so I’m eager to participate in that space,” he said.
Some of Max’s most meaningful work at Global came when he collaborated with journalists on data-driven reporting and visualizations. He produced investigations into questions like whether there’s any truth to the legend of a “Bermuda Triangle” in Lake Ontario, and if movie review scores are being artificially inflated on Rotten Tomatoes.
“I had this preconceived notion coming into Global that data journalism was for stats nerds and policy wonks — the Steve Urkels and Sheldon Coopers of the world, if you will,” he said.
“A huge lesson Global taught me was that data can be engaging to a mass audience.”
The IJF’s CEO, Zane Schwartz, is enthusiastic about the new hire.
“Max is an incredibly talented developer and journalist. He has a fantastic eye for storytelling, data visualization and web development. I’m so excited he’s joining our team,” he said.
Max grew up in Boston, but moved to Montreal at the age of 18 to study at McGill University, before settling down in Toronto. He jokes that this personal history has caused “a complex and contradictory patchwork of sports team allegiances, which I am still attempting to sort out in therapy.”
Outside of work, he enjoys bar trivia and travel, and like so many people, dabbled in baking sourdough bread during the pandemic.
“While I can’t say I’m still baking a loaf a week, I am proud that my resilient sourdough starter, Bread Asner, is still kicking,” he said.
His goal in his new position is to help more readers learn about the IJF’s reporting, and enhance the user experience on its databases.
“The journalism we publish here is so great, and the data is really a unique selling point. I want to make sure we are doing everything in our power to bring our stories and insights to users,” he said.