12 tips for better biz column writing

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

I asked Loren Steffy, the business columnist at the Houston Chronicle, earlier this week for some tips on writing a business column. The tips are intended to be included in a second edition of a business journalism textbook.

But the tips were so good, I asked Loren if I could share them here. Here you go:

1. Don’t be fooled by the title. A good business column isn’t about business per se. A good column provides commetary, analysis and insight about the flow of money and how it affects people. A columnist is often better able to cut through the PR spin than a reporter and can provide context in helping readers understand complex topics.

2. Vary your topics. Don’t allow your readers or your editors to narrow your focus. As more journalism moves to the web, you’ll be told its all about specialization. It isn’t. Money affects people in many ways, and your column should cast as wide a net as possible.

3. Write across platforms. Spread your voice not just in print, but through blogs, social media, podcasts, video. Some columns work better with certain mediums than others. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

4. Get out of the office. Writing a column doesn’t mean opining from a seated position. Do your own leg work. Meet with executives, workers, individual investors, everyone you can. Never eat alone. The business lunch is the most valuable tool in the toolkit. Work the phones. Dig through the documents.

5. Use reporters as sources. You can’t quote them, of course, but if I’m writing a column based on a news story in the paper, I like to chat about it with the reporter. Often, they’ve picked up on subtleties that they can’t put in the story, but can help you formulate a column. Sometimes, it helps you come up with better questions for your own reporting.

6. Put yourself in your work. A column is all about connecting with readers, and the best way to do that is share personal stories. Always be looking for ways to use simple anecdotes to make the complex understandable. I’ve used my adolescent lawn-mowing business and my son’s temper tantrums when he was a toddler as leads. (The former about illegal immigration and the latter about insurance rates.) I once compared mortgage securitizations and credit default swaps to a Big Mac. Readers told me it helped them understand the mortgage meltdown.

7. Don’t be afraid to use humor. You have to use it judiciously, but it can be effective. I turned Hewlett-Packard’s firing of former Chairman Patricia Dunn into a Mickey Spillane novel, the lack of indictments against a former Enron official into a Dr. Seuss tale and portrayed the market as a fickle date for Ben Bernanke. Readers love the unexpected, and they don’t expect a business column to be funny.

8. Vary the pace of the columns. Some take a lot of reporting, others take more effort on the writing. Humor, for example, takes much more time to write. Always be working ahead on the columns that will take more reporting time, and balance those with quicker-hit pieces that can help meet the deadlines in between.

9. Embrace your fallibility. Writing a column isn’t about being right, it’s about making people think. Never be afraid to admit you’re wrong, or to write a column in which you acknowledge that you’re changing your opinion. When a reader calls to tell you you’re wrong, offer to meet with them. Often, you’ll get another column from the experience. I once wrote a column that blasted “bankers,” and a community bank president in a small town about 90 miles from Houston took exception. I should have distinguished between big banks and smaller ones. I drove up to meet him and wound up with a column about how the Internet was extending the reach of small-town banks.

10. Answer every reader e-mail. Return every phone call. It can be time-consuming, but it’s important to do this as much as you possibly can. It builds reader rapport, and it develops sources and column ideas. I love to get e-mails where people suggest topics or say, “Why haven’t you written about this?” Turn the complainers into sources: “Tell me about that.” It may be the easiest way to humanize your writing with people that you might never find otherwise.Â

11. A column is a precious thing, don’t waste it. You’ve been given prime real estate. Don’t resort to “mailbag” reviews, notebook dumps or grab bags of innocuous news items separated by rows of asterisks. A column isn’t about filling space, it’s about tell great stories in a unique manner. Your readers deserve your best effort.

12. For crying out loud, have fun. Being a business columnist is one of the greatest jobs in the world. You get to write about the thing that makes the world go ’round, and you get to do it in your own voice. Few things affect people more profoundly money. I’ve heard column writing described as a treadmill, but don’t let it become that routine. In five years, I’ve never run out of things to write about, and I’ve never gotten bored.