Back to business reporting after a stint covering government and politics

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Newsday reporter James Madore returned to the business news desk of the paper earlier this year after a four-year stint covering politics in the Albany.

He’s now the paper’s senior economics reporter.

Madore grew up in Illinois and majored in history and political science at Washington University in St. Louis. After that, he attended Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Madore grabbed an internship at the Buffalo News and spent a summer working for the city desk, covering everything from fires to courts and even a story at a nudist colony that had a health scare.

After graduating, Madore worked at the Watertown Daily Times for a year as a business reporter, served a seven-year stint as a business reporter at the Buffalo News, and then joined Newsday in 1996 when the paper expanded its business section. He spent four years writing about retail.

As a media writer, he was part of the investigative team that covered Newsday’s circulation scandal in 2004.

Madore, a former member of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers board of directors, spoke by e-mail with Talking Biz News about his return to business news coverage. What follows is an edited transcript.

How hard was it to leave business news four years ago?

My departure from business was very gradual. It began when I started covering the media, which at Newsday is a beat that straddled the business and national desks. I then spent about a year covering county government before being posted to Albany in 2007.

What did you use from business news in covering politics?

The skills of business reporters easily apply to budgets and campaign finance. In New York State, like others across the country, deliberations over the state budget consume much of the annual legislative session. Policy issues also are often wrapped into agreements on fiscal matters.

My experience as a business reporter helped me get up to speed on budget issues. From the budget, many stories can be derived that reporters without business experience may miss. In Albany, I soon became known for my interest in the budget and received some good tips as a result.

Why did you decide to return to business journalism?

For its 71-year history, Newsday has had term limits for reporters working in the Capitol. So, I knew I would be returning to the newspaper’s Melville newsroom once a new gubernatorial term began.

What are you taking from political coverage and applying to business and economics news?

An understanding of how state government works, particularly the budget and regulatory agencies, helps in coverage of economic development.

How has business journalism changed in the past four years?

Like other areas of journalism, business news has been impacted by the 24-hour news cycle and the growing importance of the Web and social media. The key challenge for reporters is to maintain our print standards as we work across platforms.

Readers don’t distinguish between a tweet, Facebook post, blog item or stories on newsday.com and in tomorrow’s dead-tree edition – they expect objective reporting everywhere.

You covered media before. What will you cover now?

The regional economy

What types of stories and angles do you see yourself exploring in that beat?

The most important story for economics writers across the country is recovery from the recession. Many of the jobs lost in the 2007-09 downturn are never coming back. So, what replaces them and do our workers have the skills needed to be successful in new occupations? What are the industries that will form the backbone of the future economy?

How has the Newsday business news desk changed in the past four years?

We’re in the process of a significant expansion that will restore space lost during the recession. We’ve also greatly increased our presence on newsday.com with stories and blogs.

What is your typical day like?

I begin the day by reading the competition in print and online (NYT, Long Island Business News and the wires). I have at least one story in the works at all times but try to be available for breaking developments.

Attending events and interviewing people outside the office is important, but you have to balance it with your daily obligations. Like most reporters, I gather string for enterprise pieces while putting out daily fires. I generally work from 10 to 10:30 a.m. to 7 to 7:30 p.m.

What advice would you give someone going into business news after covering another beat?

Don’t be intimidated by the subject matter. Business news involves more numbers and documents but you still need to do lots of interviews. Storytelling is key in business because you want to draw readers to subjects they might not initially be looking for.