Reporters covering the Citicorp/Travelers deal: An autopsy
Daniel Dunaief, a former Bloomberg News reporter, writes in the Smithtown Times about how business journalists should have been more skeptical of the Citicorp/Travelers merger when it was announced in 1998. Dunaief writes, “The press conference that day revealed just how different these two financial leaders were. Weill offered amusing sound bites and off the […]
The cat and mouse game between companies and biz reporters
Mary-Jo Foley, a tech reporter who writes a Microsoft blog for ZDNet, talks about how a tech reporter covers a company in light of the issues between Apple and the reporters who have been focused on the health of its CEO. Foley writes, “I’ve gotten good access to some Microsoft teams and execs over the […]
Dow Jones freezes salaries for 2009
Patrick Gavin of FishBowlDC has posted a memo from Dow Jones & Co. CEO Les Hinton in which the owner of The Wall Street Journal, Marketwatch and Barron’s says it is freezing salaries for 2009. In the memo, Hinton states, “Therefore, as we continue to look for further cost efficiencies, I have decided to implement […]
Speculation about Apple products
TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs wonders why the business media indulges in speculation about new Apple products in advance of the MacWorld Expo. Fuchs writes, “In all seriousness, few events outside of mergers and acquisitions provoke such rank speculation from the business media as the Macworld conference, the staging ground of many Apple product introductions in the […]
BusinessWeek misclassifies company
Pamela Drew takes BusinessWeek to task for classifying Monsanto as a food products company in its list of most influential companies. Drew writes, “Monsanto listed as a food company flies in the face of reality. Not that it isn’t nice to see the makers of PCB’s and Agent Orange get a little notice in American […]
The clash between PR and biz journalism
Allen Wastler, the managing editor of CNBC.com, writes Tuesday about an AP story on banks that refused to let the PR professionals at the banks have their way. Wastler writes, “In that story a bank spokesman tried the gambit of getting the reporter not to report that the bank was not commenting (follow that?). This […]
Stop using "Big Three" to refer to the automakers
TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs writes that the business media needs to stop using the “Big Three” moniker to refer to Chrysler, Ford and General Motors. Ford, he notes, is not in as bad shape as the other two. Fuchs writes, “The Business Press Maven has tried to separate out Ford in the recent past, […]
Google vs. Wall Street Journal
Sam Gustin of Conde Nast Portfolio writes Monday about how Google has gone on the offensive against The Wall Street Journal about an article in today’s paper. Gustin writes, “The Journal article says that Google is talking to the major cable and phone companies about paying for a ‘fast lane’ for Google’s content — including […]
Cincinnati biz media ignore bank lawsuit; Relationships to blame?
The Cincinnati Beacon, the alternative newspapers in the Ohio city, reports that the Cincinnati Enquirer business desk and the Cincinnati Business Courier failed to report on a lawsuit involving Fifth Third Bank, a major bank in the city. The Beacon notes that both publications have business ventures with the bank. The Beacon item states, “So […]
Coverage of financial crisis, auto industry dominate media
A study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism discovered that media coverage of the current economic crisis and the proposed auto industry bailout totaled about 40 percent of coverage last week. The report stated, “As more grim signs of a financial meltdown emerged, the troubled economy was easily the top story […]
