How biz reporters use social media in reporting

While most people use social media to connect with friends and colleagues, reporters often use social media to convince strangers to talk to them. Sapna Maheshwari, who reports on the advertising industry for the New York Times, hosted a panel on social media for news gathering and reporting at the Society of American Business Editors […]

How CNNMoney investigated a company that processes money for mail schemes

CNNMoney senior writers Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken broke the news last week of a crackdown by the U.S. government against PacNet and the companies with which it works in a months-long investigation. The government says Vancouver, Canada-based PacNet is part of an international network that has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from millions […]

How one biz reporter covers the NFL team in town

Rich Ryman is a business reporter at the Green Bay Press-Gazette in Wisconsin and USA Today Network-Wisconsin who covers the city’s National Football League team, the Packers, from a business news perspective. Ryman, a Northern Illinois University graduate in journalism, has also worked for the Belvidere (Ill.) Daily Republican, Galesburg (Ill.) Register-Mail, and the Alexandria […]

Why business stories are often about people

Sahar Majid of the International Journalists Network interviewed Philadelphia Inquirer business reporter Diane Mastrull about her job. Majid writes, “Business is not the kind of beat that can be handled in isolation, because so many other story topics — education, health, travel, marriage, divorce — are connected with money in one way or the other, Mastrull said. ‘It […]

How the LA Times broke the Wells Fargo story

Former Los Angeles Times business reporter E. Scott Reckard spoke to Columbia Journalism Review’s Pete Vernon about how he uncovered fraud within Wells Fargo that resulted in the bank paying $185 million in fines last week. Here is an excerpt: Going back to the beginning of your reporting on Wells Fargo, what was the process that led […]

Morningstar has closed 10Kwizard.com

Morningstar has closed the 10kwizard.com Securities and Exchange Commission document service used by many business journalists. Nadine Youssef, a Morningstar spokeswoman, told Talking Biz News: We want to simplify and streamline our product lineup and focus on our core customer groups. The primary users of Morningstar Document Research are law firms and accounting firms, clients […]

Why a business columnist wrote about homelessness

Dan McSwain, the business columnist of the San Diego Union-Tribune, answered questions about why he decided to write about the city’s homelessness problem. Here is an excerpt: Q: You’re a business columnist. Why homelessness? A: I like a good mystery. The number of people living on the street in downtown San Diego has jumped by […]

McGraw Center awards grants for biz reporting projects

Four veteran journalists have won grants of up to $15,000 as recipients of the fourth round of the McGraw Fellowships for Business Journalism. Two of the winning projects will explore challenges facing the modern pharmaceutical industry: one centers on the inadequate regulation of generic drugs produced around the globe, while the other examines the difficulty of stemming long-standing problems in […]

How not to Gawker yourself: What we can learn

As a journalism educator, newsroom lawyer, writer and frequent panelist on media law issues, I have been asked several times about the impact of the famous “Hulk Hogan” case against Gawker. Almost every newsroom lawyer I know has (at least privately) given the same flippant answer: “Easy. Don’t publish secretly-made sex tapes.” But that answer, […]

Quartz stories: Smart but approachable

Financial news site Quartz aims for content that is smart but approachable, said its managing editor on Wednesday. “That’s a really powerful way to tell a story,” said Heather Landy in a conversation in Quartz’s new offices in New York. She gave two examples of such content. The first was a story from May about changes […]