How business journalists can develop a personal brand
Journalists must invest in creating “professional assurance” for themselves, said Dorie Clark, author of “Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future,” during a training call hosted by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers on Monday. “It’s not just what you do on social media, but it’s important what people think about you and how people […]
Breaking the news about American Airlines’ bankruptcy
Terry Maxon, the airlines reporter at the Dallas Morning News who is preparing to retire, writes about breaking the news that American Airlines was preparing to file for bankruptcy court protection, the story he calls the most intense of his career. Maxon writes, “When I arrived home from work around 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 28, […]
This is a drill. This is only a drill
Practice makes perfect. Luckily for business journalism, there are plenty of opportunities for practice. The trick is taking advantage of those opportunities so when lightning strikes, you’re prepared. Every week various economic numbers are released. Some have peripheral importance, others have medium importance, and some are very, very important. But every one of them is […]
Being fast and smart while reporting the jobs number
One of the regular tests of business news competence and execution is coming this Friday: the jobs number. It’s always an important number — the primary thermometer of how the economy is doing. This time around it will attract even more attention, given the market anxiety over the Fed’s September interest rate decision. For business […]
Judge denies WSJ request for records
A Texas judge has denied The Wall Street Journal’s request to see secret government requests for electronic surveillance in criminal cases. Jennifer Valentino-DeVries of The Journal writes, “The applications the Journal seeks to unseal include at least one that relates to the use of ‘stingrays,‘ phone trackers that act as fake cell towers, according to Brian Owsley, […]
Looking forward to expensing a pint of beer
Mark Kass, the editor of the Milwaukee Business Journal, interviewed new manufacturing reporter Olivia Barrow, who joins the paper after working at the Dayton Business Journal, which is also an American City Business Journals newspaper. Here is an excerpt: Q: Tell us about your newspaper background. A: “I started my career in Dayton at the […]
Lessons learned from Fortune’s Carol Loomis
Josh Brown of The Reformed Broker listed to a recent podcast with legendary business journalist Carol Loomis of Fortune and came away with several lessons. Here are some of them: 2. Don’t fear the unknown – the Fortune system didn’t involve specific beats for reporters. Stories were assigned and writers were sent out with next […]
How to succeed in a metric-driven news operation
Journalists shouldn’t be afraid of data today, but they should be aware of the metrics and analytics that can be measured online and use the information to dissect what stories do well and what stories don’t do well, said Josh Awtry, an editor of two local newspapers in the Carolinas. “As an industry we are […]
Financial journalism “captured” by elite sources
A new study suggests financial journalism has been “captured” by a small coterie of elite sources. The study was conducted by Sophie Knowles from the University of the Arts London, Gail Phillips from Murdoch University and Johan Lidberg from Monash University. A summary of the study on The Conversation notes: To answer these questions, we conducted a comparative and longitudinal study of mainstream financial journalism […]
The business journalism behind Nikkei
Jonathan Soble of the New York Times writes about the business journalism behind Nikkei, the Japanese company that announced earlier this month it was acquiring the Financial Times. Soble writes, “Mr. Otsuka, the former Nikkei reporter, said companies saw the paper as a friendly place to leak information on acquisitions, new products and financial results. […]
