Poachable business journalists

The New York Observer published Friday a list of the top 25 “poachable” journalists, and on the list are business journalists such as Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider, M.G. Siegler of TechCrunch, Bess Levin of Dealbreaker and Jenna Wortham and Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times.

About Sorkin, the Observer wrote, “If business reporting has a rock star, love him or not, it’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, who helped create one of the single most powerful and influential blogs in all of business news, let alone the Times, for whom Dealbook was an early experiment. He made himself a boldface name with Dealbook’s coverage of the 2008 crash, along with Too Big to Fail, the book and HBO movie that came after it. What other business journalist could get Jamie Dimon to show up to their book party?”

About Siegler, the paper wrote, “Siegler is currently the strongest voice at tech blog powerhouse TechCrunch, which makes you think that he would be well taken care of by parent company AOL. But after the recent drama that ended with founder Mike Arrington being forced out and columnist Paul Carr flouncing after him, Siegler revealed that Aol failed to reach out to him with any incentive to stay. He’s a born blogger, happy to pound out words with nothing but Apples for sustenance, and, while he has Twitter/Tumblr beefs with some potential poachers (The New York Times, AllThingsD) we can think of a place or two that might make a strong enough offer – complete with a semi-stable editorial structure – to lure him away from his Arianna earn-out.”

About Weisenthal, the paper wrote, “Any one of Business Insider’s top lieutenants would be a loss for Henry Blodget, but Weisenthal would be an especially hard hit, which makes him a difficult poach. No matter: anybody looking to provide more inventory or simply to shift the pace of a news operation would be downright negligent to not look at hiring Joe. Traditional business publications? Not so much, but Joe’s a one-man news wire who can sell a story like no other. It’s a freak talent and a rare find.”

Read the entire list 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.