Hard-nosed financial advice that changed lives

Lois Collins of the Deseret News profiles Washington Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary.

Collins writes, “She studied radio, television and film and minored in print journalism. Her career has involved all of them. She graduated into a job at The Evening Sun, chasing fires on the police beat, then zoning, then religion — a natural for a gal who loves both God and the English language.

“Many of the churches she covered ran businesses and she wrote about them, which caught the eye of the business editor, who recruited her to a team that was young, creative and hungry to tell great stories. ‘We tore it up. We were just out there breaking news stories.’

“Singletary’s assignment was bankruptcy, and anyone who thinks that sounds boring should consider this: It’s as close as you’re going to get to going through someone else’s wallet without having to mug that individual or steal corporate financials. Poring over public court documents, she peered in the pockets of the Baltimore Orioles and Macy’s. She talked to bankruptcy judges who were used to being ignored, so they were happy to add to her financial depth.

“Singletary wasn’t looking for change when she was wooed away by The Washington Post to cover banking and bankruptcy. Soon after taking the job, she was asked to write the Color of Money column. It’s carried now by more than 100 newspapers, including the Deseret News.”

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.