Final posting from South Africa

The difference between the quality of business journalism, and business journalists, in South Africa to the United States was exposed to me during the past couple of days here in South Africa.

For example, I had the business editor of a large newspaper here in South Africa ask me to explain to him what a P/E multiple was. I hope that there isn’t a business editor in the States that is that ignorant of such a basic business term.

On the bright side, I nearly never got away from the Durban University of Technology, which is very interested in creating a program in business journalism. They wanted to know what classes they should be teaching and how to find instructors.

Most of the business journalism I met during my 15 days in the country wanted to learn, which made me hopeful for the future of business and economics reporting in the country. Still, they need to get tougher and more aggressive in their coverage. I saw very few critical stories.

I can’t wait to get back home.