Dear biz reporters: Stop comparing GDP to market cap
Dan Mitchell writes for Columbia Journalism Review about how business journalists are incorrectly comparing a company’s market capitalization to a company’s gross domestic product. Mitchell writes, “Thursday’s USA Today story similarly described what Apple could ‘buy’ with the money represented by its market cap. But that’s not Apple’s money—it’s owned by shareholders. If Apple wanted to use its […]
How The Penny Hoarder ensures credibility in its coverage
Tommy Flaim of TapeACall.com interviewed The Penny Hoarder managing editor John Schlander about how the personal finance news organization ensures credibility in its coverage. Here is an excerpt: How do you ensure your sources contribute to the credibility of a story? What tools do you use to record in-person and phone interviews? Depending on the type of story, […]
Tech journalist creates site to help reporters working on tech stories
A technology journalist has created a website that helps other reporters get answers to questions about technology. Tech4Reporters was created by John Biggs, who writes for TechCrunch, so that reporters can ask questions about the latest tech news and where technologists – programmers, engineers, designers, and thinkers – can answer in an anonymous or open […]
Why McLean likes to look into companies where things “don’t add up”
Business journalist Bethany McLean was interviewed by Patrick O’Shaughnessy on the “Invest like the Best” about how she researches companies. “I think the process of throughly researching an investment is really analogous of what I do,” said McLean, who currently works for Vanity Fair. “The real difference is what’s actionable. For me, it’s creating a […]
Tips on how to vet potential biz news sources
Reporters in the financial media world will inevitably need to source their articles with experts who are new to them, and perhaps not well known in the finance community. So how do reporters audit their potential sources? Does an official bio on the company site do the trick? How about a well-written LinkedIn profile? Do […]
How Michael Barbaro got interested in business journalism
Kara Swisher of Recode interviewed Michael Barbaro of the New York Times — who now hosts its podcast “The Daily” — on the Recode Decode podcast, and one of the topics they discussed was how he got into business journalism. Here is an excerpt: How did you get to the Times, from? From the Washington Post. The […]
Why business journalists rarely do investigations
Whitney Curry Wimbish writes for The Baffler about why business journalism rarely does investigations. Wimbish writes, “Journalists, like economists, are worried that if they step outside those common explanations they’ll be branded as radicals and excluded from the profession, Wolff said. As for Goldman, it excels at using some media outlets to burnish its image. ‘They […]
Updated AP Stylebook has new business entries
The 2018 edition of the Associated Press Stylebook released Wednesday contains new entries affecting business and economics news stories. The new entries include: LEED — An acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the rating system used by the U.S. Green Building Council to measure a building’s sustainability and resource efficiency. LEED is acceptable […]
Bloomberg editor: Diverse newsrooms help tell better stories
Laura Zelenko, the senior executive editor for talent, diversity, standards and training at Bloomberg News, said on Friday that maintaining a diverse and inclusive workforce was vital to its success. The Hindu writes, “Ms. Zelenko also said that diversity also affected the stories that newsrooms chose to divert their resources to. She wondered if American […]
Quarter of Bloomberg content has some automation
Bloomberg editor in chief John Micklethwait wrote about the evolution of journalism, including changes within his news operation. Micklethwait writes, “News is changing shape — with technology revolutionizing the way stories are produced. One change is automation. When I arrived at Bloomberg in 2015, I found a team of “Speed” reporters who leapt on company […]
