How Indiana Businesses Exposed builds investigative articles
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
- 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.