What defines a business news story

Lesley Weidenbener

Lesley Weidenbener, the editor of the Indianapolis Business journal, writes about how the publication determines a business news story.

Weidenbener writes, “IBJ defines ‘business coverage’ more broadly than many business journals. Few have a full-time Statehouse reporter, like our Lindsey Erdody, for example. Or a reporter dedicated to the suburbs, like we do in Kurt Christian, who covers Boone and Hamilton counties, a beat we call North of 96th. Others don’t cover much philanthropy or not-for-profit news and wouldn’t therefore do a story like one we ran last week about a new residential program for homeless young adults who identify as LGBTQ.

“And what we consider IBJ news is constantly evolving. We have significantly expanded our coverage of poverty, equity and race, for example. That’s not just a moral choice; it’s also the recognition that the economy can’t thrive if a large segment of the population is struggling to get enough to eat or find a job.”

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.