Although newspapers' financial woes continue, several top reporters agreed last week that their own publications have stayed committed to the the tedious, expensive, time-consuming and rewarding task of investigative journalism.

Winners and finalists of the annual Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting discussed their stories -- all of which triggered major reforms or investigations -- last Wednesday at Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

Mark Maremont, who headed the Wall Street Journal team that won the $25,000 prize, said his paper has a "get on a plane and go" attitude about long-term projects. "There are no budgetary constraints," he said. The Journal expects all its news staffers to be investigative reporters.

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For more information on the Goldsmith Awards, click here. From Romenesko, last week's announcement of the winner and finalists. In January, Poynter's Leann Frola threw a few questions at some top investigative reporters. Click here to see their answers.

For its prize-winning series, the newspaper narrowed the topic of executive compensation to stock options. Eventually it uncovered backdated options. This, in turn, has led to federal investigations of more than 130 companies.

Journal reporter Charles Forelle helped lead the newspaper through what he called "an alphabet soup" of Securities and Exchange Commission documents as well as thousands of other poorly faxed papers.

His account of that "incredibly tedious drudgery" echoed those of many finalists, which were chosen from more than 100 print and broadcast entries.

The Boston Globe's "Debtors' Hell" series also had reporters sifting through thousands of documents. Reporter Beth Healy called it "laborious, unglamorous, but very rewarding" work. The series led to the closing of some unscrupulous collection firms and to ongoing state investigations.

"Will we always have that room to do these series? The Times has been great, but who knows?"

--Tracy WeberWalter Robinson, who led the Globe's five-person Spotlight Team investigation, said the series was the team's most time-consuming piece. But despite the recent staff cuts at the newspaper, he said management hasn't abandoned its "go for it" message. "There's no dimunition in the Globe's commitment to investigative reporting, and none on the horizon," Robinson said. He added that a readers' survey conducted after the series ran revealed "heartening" findings. "[Readers] want and expect this kind of reporting," he said.

Los Angeles Times reporter Charles Ornstein said he was "overwhelmed in data" as he and Tracy Weber uncovered abuses in organ transplant programs. Their series emerged from what they thought would be a one-day story about a patient getting the wrong liver. That story eventually uncovered a myriad of lies and abuses, and sparked major reforms in the transplant system.

Weber noted the importance of giving investigative journalists enough "time and space" to research a project, and abandon it if it doesn't pan out. The transplant piece, she said, "was a very technical story with a steep learning curve. Will we always have that room to do these series? The Times has been great, but who knows?"

Miami Herald reporter Debbie Cenziper spent seven months tracing housing authority abuses. Among other things, she found a developer who spent $287,000 on teacups. The series led to state and federal investigations and what she called hundreds of reader protests.

Amid the Herald's ownership changes, Cenziper said news staffers are "happy there's stability. We've been doing some good work, and people are just happy to have their jobs. I'm fairly optimistic that things will be okay. We have a rich tradition of investigative journalism."

"We've been doing some good work, and people are just happy to have their jobs. I'm fairly optimistic that things will be okay."

--Debbie CenziperReporters Ken Armstrong and Justin Mayo said their paper, The Seattle Times, spent thousands of dollars on lawsuits to open hundreds of illegally sealed court cases. Their investigation, still continuing after more than two years, has resulted in reform laws. Mayo recalled the "drudgery" of sifting through 3,000 cases, as Armstrong said that despite losing money for the fifth year in a row, the Times remains dedicated to this kind of quality journalism.

The Washington Post used both high and low-tech methods to expose $15 billion in farm subsidy system waste and abuse. Gilbert Gaul said he was intially reluctant to pursue the topic. "It's easy to dismiss a story that you know little about," he said. But after a month of basic research, he concluded that it had rich potential.

While Sarah Cohen worked computer databases, Gaul and Dan Morgan took to the fields, bouncing around in an old pickup truck to discover Texas mansions on plots once designated for rice.

In one farm agency's office, Gaul plucked a broker's card off the wall, which led to details about "cowboy starter kits." In diners, the reporters found farmers talking frankly about their unearned boons. "We were stunned by how honest they were," Gaul said. "Their quotes were amazing."

The Post series led to rewriting of disaster and farm legislation.