How Indiana Businesses Exposed builds investigative articles
Every Indiana Businesses Exposed article follows the same shape so readers always know what to expect. I've used this same scaffold on Lumos Fiber, Don's Auto Sales, Credit Acceptance, Superior Auto / SAC Finance, and NTN East — and there's a long pipeline of future Indiana targets queued up behind them.
The 5-section template
- Narrative lead. A real customer or employee story, told concretely.
- Business profile. Who owns it, what it does, what it promises customers.
- Patterns & red flags. Public reviews, complaints, BBB notes, civil-action records.
- Buyer-tips / worker-tips. Concrete, actionable advice for dealing with that type of business safely.
- Call to action. “If you've interacted with [business], share your story so we can build a fuller picture.”
Social-media boost set
Every business profile comes with a three-image boost set: a hero-card graphic, a review-highlights graphic, and a buyer-tips graphic. Formatted for Facebook and Instagram, with overlays that clearly label each business and direct viewers to the longer investigative articles hosted here. The article-style text for these posts is written so each Facebook or Instagram caption can stand alone as a mini-investigation.
Future targets
- Fiber-internet providers
- Home-service contractors (roofing, HVAC, foundation, etc.)
- Local-government-contracting firms
- Charity- and nonprofit-adjacent businesses
- Subprime auto-finance companies beyond Credit Acceptance
- Columbus-area startups and small businesses (boutiques, shops, services, creative firms, tech-adjacent shops)
The goal: keep Indiana consumers informed, hold businesses accountable, and use transparency as a tool for safer, fairer commerce across the state.