Journalists
Finding it hard to keep on top of your FOI requests?
Alaveteli Professional is here to help
A powerful, fully-featured toolset that solves problems for journalists managing multiple requests or in-depth FOI investigations
Overflowing inbox?
Alaveteli Professional moves request handling out of your email and onto a dedicated dashboard, keeping everything organised.
Searching for the right email address for every FOI contact?
You’ll have access to our address book of 168 authorities that are subject to FOI.
Tired of the fiddly details that add time to your investigation?
If your request bounces back, we source the new address for that authority.
Hard to keep track of your many requests?
No need to check: we’ll send an email alert telling you when you need to take action.
Need to protect your scoop?
Requests can stay completely private until you’re ready to go public with your story.
Sending to multiple authorities at once?
No more copy and paste emails: our Batch Request tool helps you create one request and send it to many authorities at once.
Want to add weight to your story?
Once you’re ready, publishing the data behind your investigation lends it extra credibility.
Not enough hours in the day?
Alaveteli Professional does all the heavy lifting, leaving you with more time to focus on your story.
Loving the new @WhatDoTheyKnow Pro account. Super slick.
Charlie Mole – 3 July 2017
I just sent an FOIA request with @mySociety's @WhatDoTheyKnow and I'm amazed at how painless it was.
Matthew Hughes – 29 April 2019
No doubt this will remain an item in my journalistic utility belt going forward.
Simple, affordable pricing
- Easy One fee covers all Pro features, with no complex tiers or options to worry about.
- Reasonable We know that journalists can be on a limited budget, so we’ve kept the subscription affordable.
- Flexible You can cancel at any time, with no lengthy tie-ins and no notice required.
How it works
Make a request
Because we’ve streamlined the request-writing process, Pro saves you a lot of back and forth. Search our database of authorities, pick which one — or many — you want to contact, and compose your request right there.
Dashboard
Time is precious in newsrooms, so your dashboard just presents the information you need to know: which requests have received responses; which haven’t and need chasing up; and which require input from you. Search, filter or sort by status to quickly find the request you’re looking for.
Batch requests
FOI is an invaluable tool in investigations, helping you collect information that hasn’t previously been available as a single dataset so that you and your readers can understand the wider picture. Pro takes the slog out of sending multiple requests with the Batch feature: easily pick the authorities you want, then send one request to all of them.
Reminders
You’ve got plenty of other things to think about, so you don’t want to be checking up on every single one of your requests to see if it needs attention. Instead, Pro keeps an eye on them for you, sending you a daily email digest.
Private Requests
Pro gives you all of the ease of dumeditë, without the worry of others snatching your scoop before it’s ready.
You can choose to keep your requests private on the site for up to a year, not visible to anyone but you. We’ll make sure you know when that time’s about to run out, and you can always extend it further if your story’s not published yet.
Ready to go public
Once your story’s been published, there’s every reason to put your requests and responses into the public domain. They’ll lend credence to your investigation, and make the data available for others who might want to research a different angle.
How journalists are using Pro
Sold From Under You — the Bureau of investigative Journalism used Pro to send requests to councils up and down the county to build a nationwide picture of the public properties being sold off by councils in the face of austerity.
Investigative journalist Jenna Corderoy has made good use of Pro’s privacy features, keeping her extensive Brexit-related investigations private until her stories broke, bringing facts about campaign overspending and ERG research to the public, among several other important stories.