Testy Biz Copy Editor riffs on Challenger & Gray’s tripe
Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s annual estimate of how much money workers cost the U.S. “economy” by watching the NCAA basketball tournament on company time will be out any day now. As always, it should be ignored. The estimate, rivaled in irrelevance and speculation only by PNC Bank’s ridiculous report on the cost of gifts mentioned […]
When a biz owner wants to review a story before publication
Brian Todd, a reporter for the Post Bulletin in Rochester, Minnesota, writes about how sources often ask to review a story, or a quote, before it’s published. Todd writes, “Hard-working business reporter Jeff Kiger said the people who most often ask to ‘look things over first’ are business owners. Most, he said, have only dealt […]
How Sorkin uses technology to cover M&A
Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times and CNBC talked about what technology he uses to cover Wall Street firms and mergers and acquisitions. Here is an excerpt: What are your favorite tech tools for keeping track of mergers, acquisitions and everything in between? First, you need to know I’m a gadget junkie. I […]
How a Minneapolis biz news desk is covering the Super Bowl
Thom Kupper is assistant managing editor for business news at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where he oversees a team of 20 reporters and editors. He joined the Star Tribune in 2010 as senior business editor, in charge of the Sunday business section, and moved to his current role in 2015. In his time at the […]
How a Reuters reporter found cryptocurrency sources
Reuters fintech reporter Anna Irrera was interviewed about her series of stories on cryptocurrencies with Steve Stecklow. Here is an excerpt: Q. What types of reporting was involved? A. The series took around 9 months and required all the types of reporting you may expect, from calling and emailing sources, to shoe leather reporting. Having good sources […]
Bloomberg to expand women’s voices project
Bloomberg editor in chief John Micklethwait sent out the following announcement on Tuesday: To All in Editorial & Research, In October 2016, Stephanie Phang and Jodi Schneider started the Women’s Voices project in Asia Pacific with the aim of increasing the number of female experts and officials we quote in stories and on broadcast. This number is […]
Testy Biz Copy Editor: Too much of this going around
Farewell columns are always tiresome. This one is especially so. This guy was a financial editor once, but it’s clear that he didn’t like it much. It’s a dirty secret that many business editors get their jobs because no one else wants them and it’s a “take it or […]
A business journalist people admired and respected
Angie Muhs, the executive editor of the State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois, writes about Tim Landis, the paper’s business editor who died earlier this month. Much writes, “Tim was a good reporter because he excelled at making those community-based connections, and he excelled at making connections because of his character. “Tim never was feigning interest or […]
The Kovacevich test of business journalism
Aaron Elstein, a senior reporter at Crain’s New York Business, writes about what makes news for his publication. Elstein writes, “But boss, I pleaded, the story is about a banking executive who is opening branches in supermarkets all over the South. Folks who could never make a withdrawal or deposit a check at Piggly Wiggly […]
How biz reporters used public records to find the story
Carol Hunter, the executive editor of the Des Moines Register, writes about how business reporters at the paper used public records to report a story about worker injuries at a wind blade manufacturer. Hunter writes, “The investigation began when courts reporter Grant Rodgers received a tip last spring to look into some lawsuits that had […]
