IBE
Indiana Businesses Exposed Consumer-transparency research
Editorial framework

How Indiana Businesses Exposed builds investigative articles

Filed under: methodology · reusable template

Indiana Businesses Exposed uses a consistent article-template structure so readers always know what to expect. The same scaffold has been applied to Lumos Fiber, Don's Auto Sales, Credit Acceptance, Superior Auto / SAC Finance, and NTN East — and to a long pipeline of future Indiana targets.

The 5-section template

  1. Narrative lead. A real customer or employee story, told concretely.
  2. Business profile. Who owns it, what it does, what it promises customers.
  3. Patterns & red flags. Public reviews, complaints, BBB notes, civil-action records.
  4. Buyer-tips / worker-tips. Concrete, actionable advice for dealing with that type of business safely.
  5. 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

The goal: keep Indiana consumers informed, hold businesses accountable, and use transparency as a tool for safer, fairer commerce across the state.

Got a tip? Submit it here. Anonymous submissions are fine. We verify independently before anything gets published.