Categories: OLD Media Moves

From financial futures to front-page features

John Bussey of The Wall Street Journal remembers how The Journal’s Jeff Zaslow, who died last week, made the transition from covering business news to other topics.

Bussey writes, “Hello, I’m here on behalf of Jeff’s many friends at the Wall Street Journal.

“I met Jeff on my first day with the Journal in the Chicago bureau in 1983. Jeff had started the previous week. I asked him: ‘So, what’s your beat?’

“Jeff paused for a moment and then said in a serious tone: ‘Financial Futures.’ Then he burst out laughing in that engaging and knowing laugh he had. He kept on laughing and soon I was kind of laughing too, and wondering: Why am I laughing? I have no idea what Financial Futures are.

“But that was the point: Neither did Jeff.

“In a colossal mismatch, the well-intentioned forces of the universe had taken our budding Michelangelo and, for the moment, assigned him to the equivalent of the paint department of an auto repair shop — in this instance to enlighten readers about forward currency contracts on the pound sterling and Malaysian ringgit. It was my first introduction to Jeff’s keen appreciation of life’s quirkiness, and the first round of what would be 29 years of laughing with my friend.

“It didn’t take long for Jeff to escape the finance beat and start writing beautiful page-one stories about overnight workers in office buildings and the isolated lives of Norwegian bachelor farmers. It would be a continuous trajectory upward from there: as a page-one writer for the Journal, a Sun-Times advice columnist, back to the Journal as an award-winning columnist writing about life’s transitions, and as an author of best-selling books.”

Read more here.

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.

Recent Posts

Making financial news more accessible

CNBC Make It reporter Ashton Jackson writes about ways to make financial news more accessible to consumers.…

1 hour ago

SABEW names Best in Business Book winners

The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing announced Wednesday the winners and finalists for…

7 hours ago

Business leaders turning away from traditional biz news outlets

Business professionals are turning away from traditional business media sources such as newspapers, magazines and…

7 hours ago

Wired seeks a reporter to cover tech companies

WIRED seeks a reporter to cover tech companies and their influence, with a particular focus…

8 hours ago

Austin daily hires Leonard as tech reporter

Karoline Leonard has been hired by the Austin American-Statesman as a technology reporter. Leonard graduated from…

11 hours ago

WSJ reporter Evans departs for Tradeoffs

Wall Street Journal reporter Melanie Evans has left the news organization for Tradeoffs, a nonprofit news organization…

12 hours ago