Monitor the public records. Find the story before it becomes a press release.
GovWatch requests the records registers of municipalities, regions and agencies every weekday. Ahody scores every entry, requests the documents you choose, reminds when replies are late and writes drafts when the documents arrive.
Built on the Swedish principle of public access. Available to newsrooms in the Swedish market.
§ The problem
Everything that is registered is public. Almost nobody has time to read it.
Every day, building permits, procurements, officials' reports and decisions are entered into the registers of Swedish authorities. Many of the year's most important investigations start with a single line in a records register. But requesting the registers, reading them and following up every request takes time no newsroom has.
GovWatch makes the monitoring systematic, register by register.
§ How it works
From a line in the register to a draft in the newsroom.
- 01
Choose what the newsroom should follow
Search close to 2,800 organisations and choose what the newsroom should follow: an entire agency, or individual committees and boards in a municipality or region. Each choice becomes its own monitor, with the right registrar address prefilled.
- 02
The register is requested automatically
GovWatch sends a request to the registrar at the pace you choose, for example every weekday. The first request covers the last 24 hours, and each request after that covers the time since the previous one. Nothing falls through the cracks.
- 03
Ahody scores, you request
Every new entry gets a news value based on your newsroom's profile, so the most important ones rise to the top. One click on Request, and the request for a public document goes to the right registrar.
- 04
Drafts to edit, not alerts
When the documents arrive, Ahody reads them and writes a draft citing the registration number. The editor takes it on to Workdesk, Editor or straight to publishing.
Built for Sweden
Built for the principle of public access.
Public documents must be released promptly. GovWatch keeps track of every request from the first email to the incoming document, so the newsroom can spend its time on journalism.
Reminders
Under Waiting you see how many days each request has waited. Choose when the reminder goes out, or remind right away with one click.
The right file in the right case
Incoming documents are linked to their request. If an attachment arrives without a registration number, it is flagged so you can place it yourself.
News value per entry
Every entry and every incoming document gets a news value, like the 72 above. The higher the number, the more relevant it is to your newsroom, so the most important items always show first.
Part of Newsdesk
Drafts land in the same flow as the rest of Ahody. Lists can also be exported for your own analysis.
Availability
GovWatch is currently available in the Swedish market only.
GovWatch is built for Swedish records registers and the Swedish principle of public access. That is why the product is currently only available to newsrooms in Sweden.
Working outside Sweden and interested in GovWatch? Get in touch, and we'll tell you more about our plans.
Next step
See which records registers matter to your newsroom.
We'll go through your beat and show you what GovWatch could look like for your newsroom.