Why one real estate reporter writes about rent

Phillip Molnar

Dylan Housego of The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Community Journalism Scholars Program profiled Phillip Molnar, who covers real estate for the paper.

Housego writes, “He still had to do some business writing and would grow to enjoy it, which led him to his job at The San Diego Union-Tribune.

“‘When I came to the paper, I felt like we weren’t writing enough about rent and about half of the people that live here are renters,’ Molnar said. ‘Something that I was able to do was push rent to the forefront of something we talk about a lot.’

When he started, Molnar tried to publish at least one article each work day about renting and related real estate topics.

“‘For me it’s been an opportunity to be a part of changing ideas toward income inequality and all these other issues that I find really important,’ Molnar said.”

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.