Tacoma paper adds business watchdog reporter

Kate Martin

Kate Martin, who has covered the Tacoma City Hall for the Tacoma News-Tribune, has moved to a new beat as the paper’s business watchdog reporter.

Business team leader Debbie Cockrell told Talking Biz News:

After feedback from readers in our API research and also given our current state of coverage and topics available for us to dive into, we decided it was important to commit to a business watchdog focus in our department. Kate brings a lot of talent to this job and was a natural choice with her data research skills and strong commitment to accessing necessary records from public entities.

Martin has been with the paper since August 2013, covering the Tacoma City Council, Metro Parks Tacoma and Tacoma Public Utilities. Before that, she worked at the Skagit Valley Herald for six years covering education and government.

She also worked at the Loveland Reporter Herald in Colorado for nearly four years.

Martin is a graduate of the College of Charleston’s Department of Media Studies. She began her career freelancing in Virginia.

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.