Rethinking the executive profile
William D. Cohan’s exceptional profile of Robert Rubin in Bloomberg Businessweek should be on everyone’s must-read list, especially younger journalists and students. Not to gush too much, but it’s balanced, fair, critical and interesting. And anyone who’s ever had to convince someone to say something less than glowing about an executive as well connected as […]
When companies file lawsuits, free speech is muzzled
Business journalist Roddy Boyd writes about how some companies that are criticized by the media and investors file lawsuits to shut their critics up. Boyd writes, “Unsurprisingly, Fairfax does not agree with the notion that its lawsuit was primarily designed to stifle critics. Approached for comment, Michael Bowe, the Kasowitz Benson partner directing the litigation, […]
The business of music
Tuesday night I did what I do at least once a week and headed to a local bar to check out a band. We caught a set from the talented group Onward, Soldiers (check them out). While enjoying the show, I wondered, what keeps them on the road playing small bars and side stages at […]
The dumbing down of biz journalism
Martin Sosnoff writes on Forbes.com about what he calls the decline of quality financial journalism. Sosnoff writes, “There were no other stories of market significance in Section 5. Commentary on Apple’s iPhone 5 failed to take its story to the next level: How does Apple build a repetitive business of size from its apps and […]
The problem with tech journalism: Too much focus on page views
Tom Foremski of ZDNet.com writes that intense media coverage of the specs of consumer products such as the iPhone misses more important issues. Foremski writes, “Tech journalism has become tedious product journalism where printing the spec sheets for mass produced consumer products is celebrated as a great story and where there appears to be little […]
Why business journalists should not think like investors
Wade Roush, Xconomy’s chief correspondent (and no relation), writes about why business journalists should not think and act like investors. Roush writes, “There are way more Bay Area tech companies than I can possibly cover, so I have to say no to a lot of story pitches. When I do that, I sometimes trot out the investor analogy. It goes […]
Do colleges collude on price?
I’ve been reading a lot about college education these days—in part, because newspaper financial sections seem full of articles on the topic. In addition, I recently became an official college tuition payer and will drop my freshman off at college next week. What am I reading? Well, there’s a healthy debate about whether college education […]
What happens when the biz media covers the same story
Douglas McIntyre of 24/7WallSt.com writes about the increasing overlap among business news media in the stories that they cover. McIntyre writes, “The question of why people pick one business medium over another then swings around to issues of opinion or commentary. Do people read the New York Times business section because of Wall St. expert Andrew Ross Sorkin […]
News vs. opinion debate at Reuters
The Baron, a website devoted to discussing issues involving the Reuters newsroom, notes that there’s been a heated discussion in the wake of the news wire hiring a conservative columnist. The Baron writes, “No other item on The Baron has excited such a response, some of it quite agitated. The reasoning covers many points of […]
Watchdog financial journalism is nearly 200 years old
One of the continuing arguments about the quality of financial journalism is that in the past it wasn’t as tough as it should be in uncovering unscrupulous companies and fraud. However, new research by a British professor — James Taylor of Lancaster University — shows that the financial press during the Victorian era played a […]
