Covering money is important to people’s lives

Fox Business Network’s Gerri Willis talked with Opportunist magazine managing editor Leslie Stone about covering tax season and her career in business journalism.

Here is an excerpt:

Opportunist: Can you tell us about your path to broadcast journalism?

Gerri Willis: It’s a weird path because I wasn’t really trained in TV. My training had a lot more to do with business and journalism and writing in general. I was a print reporter before I went into TV. My main inspiration was a bunch of auto workers in Ohio. I was covering politics for the newspaper in Lima at the time, which I loved, and I thought that was my future. The editor sent me out to cover these Ford auto workers who had been laid off during a deep recession. They had been out of work for a long time and how they coped with their circumstances got me hooked. Money was super tight and they developed an informal sort of barter system where they would trade toilet paper for lightbulbs. I was so inspired. I realized how business and the economy had so much to do with the way people lived their lives. The mayor could do virtually nothing for those Ford workers. That’s how I got hooked. I saw how important it was in the day-to-day lives of Americans.

Opportunist: What are some of the most recent stories you are covering on ‘The Willis Report?’

Gerri Willis: We have been doing a lot of consumer stories. Consumer news is my current love. We covered the data security breaches at retailers such as Target and Neiman Marcus and what’s happened to Americans because of it. Last summer we spent a lot of time on the GM story about all of the recalls due to problems with the ignition switch. The best part of that story was that we were able to show people how to stop those cars. We try to find that extra, added piece of advice that people are looking for.

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