David Callaway, the CEO of TheStreet.com, writes about legendary business journalist Marshall Loeb, who died Saturday at the age of 88.
Callaway writes, “The founder of modern business journalism, who died this past weekend at 88, built his lasting legacy at Time, Fortune, and Money magazines. Late in life, he was a columnist for CBS MarketWatch, where I had the good fortune to edit him. In his late 70s and early 80s, Marshall didn’t rest on his fame. He lived journalism every day.
“He greeted everybody as if he was interviewing them — ‘How’s business?’ He fact-checked and double-checked his columns. He quizzed me constantly for themes and ideas he could write about. He brainstormed with me over long, wine-soaked lunches about strategies for creating the best digital news company. He was obsessed with presidential politics, having covered every national party convention back to Eisenhower. On Marshall’s birthday eight years ago, we ran the headline ‘Web Journalist Turns 80,’ for a story in which I noted he was the hardest-working journalist on the staff.
“He himself wrote a column headlined, Recalling 60 years of sea change in history, journalism.
“Marshall would call me Boss. It felt like Babe Ruth calling the bat boy Coach. He would do video for our CBS MarketWatch Weekend television show, once dressing up as Santa Claus for a holiday-themed spot on how to invest for the coming year.”
Read more here.
