What it’s like to be an FT reporter

Financial Times’ global tax correspondent Emma Agyemang spoke with Akilia Quinio about her job.

Here is an excerpt:

What does a week as the FT’s global tax correspondent look like?

There is no typical week. Editorial meetings with the other economics journalists are pretty much the only consistent part of my day. I watch and chair events, read reports and speak to regular and new contacts.  I’m also on social media a lot, there’s a big tax twitter hashtag. I’ve got quite a few of the lead stories from people posting things. Then you’re like ‘oh what does that mean’ and you dig a bit more and it turns out to be a story. I also spend time writing stuff and being edited. If we weren’t in a pandemic I would be going out more, travelling to different countries and events.

What are some misconceptions about financial journalism?

I’m not at parties anymore but in the old days people would say ‘Oh you’re a journalist? Cool. Oh you cover tax, oh’. People think it’s really dry, technical and boring. But it’s not. Everyone in the world understands that they have to pay tax and what happens when they don’t. It really affects people individually and that’s true with a lot of financial issues. Everyone is interested in money, it’s just the way you describe it that can make it more or less relatable.

Read more here.