Categories: OLD Media Moves

Finding business journalism jobs on Facebook

Elisabeth Butler Cordova of Crain’s New York Business writes about how Fast Company senior editor Jeffrey Chu found his latest job by surfing for friends on social networking site Facebook.

Cordova wrote, “While surfing through members’ personal pages on the social networking site, the financial journalist came upon a former colleague from his days at Time magazine.

“‘Dude, what are you doing on Facebook?’ Mr. Chu wrote to Robert Safian, now editor in chief of Fast Company.

“In the old days, that kind of salutation might not have pleased a prospective employer. But times have changed. The contact prompted a flurry of exchanges, all on Facebook, which led to a lunch meeting in the real world. The official job offer came through the site.

“‘I don’t think I got a regular e-mail from him,’ Mr. Chu says. ‘I don’t even know if I had his phone number.'”

Read more here. Also, note that the Society of American Business Editors and Writers has a members group on Facebook.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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  • Is it really a new story that somebody got a job from his existing connections? Isn't that how many people get jobs, regardless of the medium they use to make the contact? And aren't the key words here: a former colleague from his days at Time magazine?

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