Testy biz copy editor pontificates on lazy headlines and writing
“Tall order.” Get it? If you did, the Washington Post headline should have been rewritten. Check that. It should have been rewritten anyway. That was an Associated Press headline. Duplicating headlines on wire stories is one of the great examples of laziness. Even if they’re wrong, they are widely used in print and online. On […]
The rise of “no comment” from newsmakers
Harvey Radin writes for the Times of San Diego about the increasing use of “no comment.” Radin writes, “And just recently, a Wells Fargo Bank spokesperson declined to comment in stories in the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle reporting that top executives had taken ‘home lavish sums last year’ while the bank’s fake accounts […]
When a biz reporter breaks news to the source
Michael Dailey of the New York Times writes about how business reporter Sapna Maheshwari broke news to JPMorgan Chase about its advertising. Dailey writes, “In late February, while investigating the financing of a network of fake news sites, Sapna Maheshwari, a business reporter at The Times, came across a site that looked similar to many others she had […]
Testy biz news copy editor says cut the enthusiasm
Associated Press By Phillip Blanchard There’s a new way to order doughnuts. Nowhere in this AP story is there a hint of anything other than enthusiasm for a navigation app that lets people “purchase coffee and other items” for pickup. Imagine that! What a world! You can’t buy this kind […]
Writing about government economic reports is hard. Do the work
Los Angeles Times Who are we to call an employment report “healthy”? The 235,000 added jobs might look “healthy,” but there’s plenty of information buried in the monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics report that could inform other interpretations. For example, if you look at “total nonfarm” figures in the February report, you see […]
Meeting sources: Dimly lit parking garage or Soul Cycle?
Many potential sources (PR people’s clients) are keen on meeting with the media while they’re in New York City for business. This also holds for clients visiting other cities that may have a local bureau — San Francisco, Chicago, London, Hong Kong, etc. New York carries a special significance given that it’s home to both Wall […]
Testy Copy Editor: Trump victory fuels confidence
Trump won. Consumer and small-business confidence surged. Now what? – Albuquerque Journal Correlation is not causation. Although the election result has been “credited” with improving some measures of the economy, there is no objective proof of it. The headline states flatly that Donald Trump’s election was what caused increases in “confidence.” This story exacerbates the […]
When business journalists use bad quotes
Wall Street is throwing the most money at U.S. energy companies since at least 2000 amid growing confidence that the industry is emerging from the worst downturn in a generation. – Bloomberg Don’t get confused. Contrary to popular opinion (and many careless business writers), “Wall Street” usually doesn’t throw money at companies at all. The […]
Bloomberg’s O’Brien on the craft of biz news commentary
Timothy O’Brien, executive editor of Bloomberg View and Bloomberg Gadfly, talks about the art of business news commentary. Here is an excerpt: What is the primary goal of Bloomberg Gadfly, and Bloomberg View as a whole? We’re the commentary arm of Bloomberg News and our goal is to offer our readers a lens on the […]
How the Chicago Tribune took on the pharmaceutical industry
Jackie Spinner of Columbia Journalism Review writes about how the Chicago Tribune’s series on the pharmaceutical industry came about. Spinner writes, “The three-part investigative project focuses on hidden interactions between prescription medicines that could have life-threatening consequences if taken together. The first of the ‘Dangerous Doses’ series, published a year ago, identified four potentially unsafe drug […]
