Why a biz news desk focuses on restaurant openings and closings

Romando Dixson, the executive editor of the Peoria Journal Star in Illinois, writes about why the paper covers restaurant openings and closings.

Dixson writes, “To help readers keep up with the news, Journal Star reporter Cassidy Waigand publishes a newsletter on the local food and dining scene, delivered to your email every Thursday. The newsletter is a collection of stories about new restaurants, closing businesses, anniversaries, menu updates, the people behind local businesses and more.

“It’s impossible for us to write about every business in Peoria and unimaginable when you add in surrounding towns and counties. But business coverage, whether it’s food or not, is one of our core topics.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.