Kai Ryssdel wants people to enjoy business news

Kai Ryssdel, the host of public radio’s “Marketplace” show, believes that people will get more out of their business news if it’s enjoyable, according to an article in the Idaho Business Review.

Reporter John Foster wrote, “The show is also known for a magazine-style, in-depth but breezy presentation of business and financial news. Marketplace is the opposite of stodgy: hip, irreverent and whip-smart. The show also has a broad vision of which stories are relevant to business. It means you can hear a long interview with the founder of Starbucks but also a report on the economic impact of the crisis in Lebanon.”

Later, Foster added, “Ryssdal and the Marketplace reporters are not compelled to report only the latest breaking business news. The show is not a version of what you read in the Wall Street Journal or on Jim Cramer’s web site. In fact, the 20 people who sit in on the show’s editorial meetings don’t really care about business – they care about interesting stories. ‘Nobody is going to read pieces or listen to pieces if you just tell the news,’ Ryssdal said.

“That’s one reason Marketplace is produced in Los Angeles. About two decades ago the show considered a setting up shop in Washington, D.C., or New York City.

“‘They made a very conscious effort to be outside that loop, to hear what the rest of us care about,’ Ryssdal said. ‘When I sit down at noon or 12:30 to start writing the program I’m thinking about the person who’s got dinner on the stove or who’s reading the homework with their kids. They are trying to figure out not just a little bit of news but what it all meant. We are not speaking to the people who we know are listening – people in the White House, people in New York. They call us, but we’re not writing for them. We’re writing for people juggling 14 different things. I’m trying to make it make sense for myself.'”

Read more here.