Categories: OLD Media Moves

How Rebecca Jarvis got her start in business journalism

Rebecca Jarvis

Maggie Loughran of The Chicago Maroon interviewed ABC News business and technology correspondent Rebecca Jarvis about her career.

Here is an excerpt:

CM: Did you start out in print journalism and then go to broadcasting?

RJ: I started out writing for  Crain’s Chicago Business , and a magazine that’s no longer around called  Business 2.0 .

When I was in college,  Business 2.0  had offered me an internship but I ended up taking instead an offer in London with Citi. So I circled back around with the people who had offered me the internship in college and said, “I would love to write for you—freelance, whatever,” and I pitched them some ideas and started writing freelance for them and also pitched a number of ideas to  Crain’s  and started writing for them.

One of the very first articles, this was 2005, I had pitched to  Crain’s  was—when I was in investment banking I had seen all of these companies taking on more and more debt—and so the article was all about why companies were taking on so much debt and how banks were allowing companies to take on more and more debt that was known as covenant-free or covenant-light, meaning they didn’t have restrictions on them and they could really—they were able to borrow more money than ever before and they were able to do it without having to live up to standards that had been in place years before.

In 2005 it was kind of the beginning of the—people can argue about when the actual beginning of the housing bubble was, and the debt bubble—but really, the Great Recession was caused in large part by people in all facets taking on too much debt. The housing crisis is the biggest part of it that we all know. There was just way too much leverage in the system.

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

CNN Underscored seeks a senior money editor

The Senior Money Editor will be responsible for content creation and strategy for money and personal finance recommendation and…

6 hours ago

Reporter Witt departs Wichita Biz Journal

Josh Witt, a reporter at the Wichita Business Journal, is leaving the American City Business…

2 days ago

Business Insider names Sommers interim UK bureau chief

Business Insider has named Jack Sommers its interim UK bureau chief. He has been a deputy editor…

2 days ago

WFMZ-TV in Allentown seeks a business reporter

WFMZ-TV is seeking a dynamic Business Reporter with a passion for reporting and an ability…

2 days ago

CNBC is expanding its sports business coverage

CNBC is throwing its weight behind its nascent CNBC Sport brand, bringing its sports business coverage to…

2 days ago

How right-leaning outlets have covered the market sell-off

Ken Bensinger of The New York Times writes about how right-leaning media organizations have not emphasized…

2 days ago