Dean Rotbart of TJFR and NewsBios writes Monday about Helen Thomas, the business journalist for the Financial Times, not to be confused with Helen Thomas, the former Hearst Newspapers columnist and White House correspondent who resigned last week.
Rotbart writes, “The younger Helen Thomas, who based on looks alone is well less than half the age of the elder Thomas, is a graduate of Oxford University and in 2003 was named a finalist in England’s Best New Journalist of the Year competition for her work at a business weekly, Property Week.
“This week, the younger Thomas is reporting on the likely acquisition of Bresnan Communications for $1.3 billion by Cablevision, the US cable giant controlled by the Dolan family. Last week, she wrote about well-known investor Carl Icahn and his agreement to withdraw his slate of board nominees at biotech company, Genzyme.
“According to NewsBios.com, which provides journalist dossiers and in-depth personal background information to major corporations and public relations firms, the FT’s Ms. Thomas assumed the US M&A beat earlier this year, after spending two years writing on financial services and regulation for the paper’s influential Lex column. She has also covered media and property.
“Sharing ‘twin’ bylines in the journalism world is far from unique. Often reporters who have the same first and last names differentiate themselves by including a middle name or initial, or by using a nickname or their middle name alone along with their surname.”
Read more here.
