A midlife career change to become a business journalist

Karen Croke of The Journal News in Westchester County writes Monday about Debra Borchardt, who left a six-figure salary at Bear Stearns to become a financial reporter. Borchardt now works for TheStreet.com.

Croke writes, “After a short stint on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ while still at NYU, she was hired to write for TheStreet.com. Last year, she started doing video. Her segments, on everything from the effect of federal interest-rate cuts to a recent piece on the Six Degrees of Rubin and Madoff, have a refreshing honesty and the feel of guerrilla journalism. That’s mostly because they have few or no production values. ‘We don’t have a lot of network perks,’ she says.

“Indeed. Borchardt’s office is a spare cubicle in TheStreet.com financial-district studio, which is crammed with cosmetics – she does her own hair and makeup – and her wardrobe comes straight from her own closet.

“On any given day, you can tune in to find her in the same trench coat and red turtleneck she probably wore while running errands around town before heading into the studio. She writes all her own scripts — the only TheStreet.com TV personality to do so, and produces her video segments with the help of one cameraman. Together they roam the financial district interviewing everyone from Dylan Ratigan of CNBC’s ‘Fast Money’ to traders on the floor of the exchange.”

Read more here.