The publisher and co-founder of Hunterbrook Media, the startup newsroom whose parent places stock market bets to profit from its journalism, owns a stake in a competitor to a company that was recently the subject of a critical article.

Hunterbrook Media launched in April amid a storm of calculated controversy over its business model: It would do hard-hitting investigative journalism, building a media business by putting its money where its mouth is and shorting its targets’ stock.

The model has a certain logic. But this newest exposé raises questions about how to trust journalists who are playing the market when they are — as has not been previously reported — also invested in another company in the same space as their target.

The…