OLD Media Moves

How to think about business stories in a non-traditional way

Michelle Cheng of Quartz writes about how to think about business stories in non-traditional ways, from uncovering stories about underrepresented communities to exploring social inequities.

Cheng writes, “The panelists included Samanth Subramanian, Quartz’s future of capitalism reporter, Esmé E. Deprez, a senior investigative reporter at Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek, and Eshe Nelson, a business and economics reporter at the New York Times. The event was moderated by Quartz executive editor Kira Bindrim.

“‘The way journalism has been done has historically been limiting, and tends to focus on smaller groups of people and smaller groups of problems,’ said Bindrim. But that’s changing.

“Nelson’s approach to finding business stories changed with her job, she says. The longer she was at at a publication, the more comfortable she felt pushing the boundaries. Nelson used the example of getting comfortable covering markets, which led her to question who she was approaching in her stories. ‘It wasn’t so much about changing the nature of the stories. It was about changing who I was speaking to these stories, which will hopefully lead to slightly different ideas and slightly different perspectives,’ she said. ‘The further I got in my career, the more I’ve been able to do that,’ she said.

“Subramanian said his approach to business journalism changed when he came to Quartz, where for the first time, he worked to bring the qualities of magazine journalism to digital stories that had a quick turnaround. He detailed how he wanted to bring a magazine journalist lens to business journalism, by trying to trace a narrative through the people and places—not just through analysts and spokespeople. ‘There should be a way to find those same qualities, by…talking to people who are outside of the regular corporate circles, trying to bring a sense of history or a sense of narrative that is happening on a daily basis,’ he said.

“Deprez has been at Bloomberg since 2009. Originally, she didn’t think she would be a business journalist—or stay one. ‘It can sometimes feel like a straitjacket and limiting if you let it,’ she said. ‘But at the end if you push yourself, it often yields better stories to look at through a business lens, because you can narrow it enough to just find a better, a more interesting angle.’

“There’s a business story in every story, the panelists said—whether it’s someone making money, or someone getting screwed—it’s about thinking hard and analytically about who those people are.”

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

TheStreet.com anchor Gittens departs

Conway Gittens, an anchor at TheStreet.com, has left the news organization after a year. He…

7 hours ago

Morning Consult, ACBJ launch consumer index for 46 cities

Morning Consult and American City Business Journals have launched the Metropolitan Consumer Sentiment Index, a…

7 hours ago

Martineau departs The Information

Paris Martineau, a reporter at tech news site The Information, left the news organization last…

7 hours ago

Black departs The Information

The Information reporter Julia Black, who had been covering tech policy and the Trump administration since the…

7 hours ago

Houston Landing is closing after two years

The Houston Landing board has voted to shut down the nonprofit newsroom in the face…

8 hours ago

Fortune hires Blum to be energy editor

Fortune has hired Jordan Blum as its energy editor. He is based in Houston. Blum previously was…

8 hours ago