Business journalism is an adversarial role

Brian James Kirk of Technically Philly profiles Philadelphia Inquirer business columnist Joe DiStefano about his job and how he covers technology.

Kirk writes, “With the pressure of updating a daily news blog in addition to his regular column in the Philadelphia Inquirer, columnist Joseph N. DiStefano says that the biggest change over the last few years in the newspaper offices at 400 N. Broad is acceleration.

“‘It’s a lot easier to get a hold of key documents and get answers to a lot of basic questions online,’ says DiStefano, who pens the Inky’s PhillyDeals column.

“‘But reporting is reporting. News is information that someone else wants to suppress.’

“DiStefano has the gruff exterior one might expect of a veteran newspaper columnist who writes hard news about regional business.

“‘I used to tell CEOs that if you’re indicted, I will cheerfully write that story on page one. Not to celebrate indictment, but because we have the space there,’ he says. ‘It’s an adversarial role.'”

Read more here.