Monthly Archives: July 2011
Writer who uncovered original Ponzi scheme gets his due
by Chris Roush
William McMasters, the journalist-turned-PR person who wrote about a financial scam being perpetrated by Charles Ponzi back in 1920 for the Boston Post, was recently honored for his work.
McMasters, who died in 1968, received the annual Sentinel Award — honoring “the selfless act of coming forward for the sole purpose of righting a wrong” — from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
Jerry Kronenberg of the Boston Herald writes, “So, he wrote a first-person account of the scheme, which the Post splashed across its Aug. 2, 1920, front page. Post staffers followed up a few days later with an expose revealing that Ponzi had served prison time in Canada.
“The scammer ultimately went to jail for his Boston scam and the Post won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, but gave its staff most of the credit and little recognition to McMasters. He was left to resume his public-relations career, running unsuccessfully for governor in 1938 before quietly living out his days doing freelance writing and teaching journalism classes.
“However, McMasters finally began to get his due in the wake of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
“Months after Madoff’s 2008 arrest, The New York Times wrote a piece about McMasters’ unpublished memoir of his Ponzi experiences turning up in a New York university’s library.”
Read more here.
Florida paper adds business content
by Chris Roush
The Lakeland Ledger, a New York Times Co. paper in Florida, is adding pages and content to its business section.
One extra page will be added to the business section on Thursdays to focus on personal finance. Three news columnists will be added to provide readers, specifically seniors, advice: The Savvy Senior; Smart Spending and On the Money, which will rotate every other week; and Kurt Elmhorst, a financial analyst who will write a weekly column geared toward older investors. Elmhorst’s column will debut Aug. 18.
On Friday, another extra page will be added to business, focusing on automotive and investment content. Local columnist Laura Lear will provide investment advice for the average person.
Vickie Velez, who writes about the local employment scene, is a new columnist at the paper. Her column, Job Today, Gone Tomorrow, runs the last Wednesday of the month in business.
Read more here.
Words used by biz journalists become more similar as markets rise
by Chris Roush
The Economist reports that a study released from Irish researchers shows that financial reporters covering the stock market tend to use more similar words in their stories as the market rises.
A story states, “The researchers looked at thousands of articles from the Financial Times, the New York Times and the BBC that were published over a four-year period starting in 2006. They found that journalists’ language became less diverse when stockmarkets were rising, with certain common nouns and verbs like ‘rise,’ ‘fall,’ ‘close’ and ‘gain’ becoming more common still. Like investors, journalists move in a herd when markets are frothy.
“Oddly, the same does not apply when markets are falling: then, journalists’ language becomes less homogenous. The authors have no real explanation for this, although Mr Keane echoes a suitably well-worn Tolstoy quote to surmise: ‘Maybe it’s a bit like happy families are all happy in the same way, but unhappy families are unhappy in many different ways.’ A run-up in markets focuses on a few companies, indices and events, in other words; a crash sends waves of disparate, dismal stories through the economy. Perhaps. Or it may just be that when the consensus fractures, language does, too.”
WSJ/DJ looking for deputy China editor
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal international editor Rebecca Blumenstein sent out the following announcement on Friday afternoon:
We’re looking for a deputy China Editor to help lead our joint WSJ/DJN bureau in mainland China.
The ideal candidate is a seasoned reporter with the editing skills and writing flair to drive one of the most compelling stories in the world today. International news experience and a deep understanding of all parts of our news organization are helpful.
The editor will serve as a deputy editor for enterprise, driving coverage and in-depth stories that distinguish us from rivals on one of the world’s most competitive stories.
The editor is a key part of the team leading our combined bureaus in Beijing and Shanghai. This person will work closely with Shen Hong, DJN bureau chief for China and real-time deputy, who ensures we regularly break news and dominate the headlines. The position reports to Andy Browne, our China Editor.
The China story is vast, complex and exhilarating. The country has emerged from the global crisis with an economy that has replaced the U.S. as the world’s growth engine — and a determination to take on a more prominent role in international business, diplomacy and military affairs. Yet it is also grappling with problems of immense proportions, from environmental degradation to social strife.
The deputy China Editor is at the center of the growing file from China, helping to break stories for all platforms, shaping page one stories and editing stories for every section of the paper. Based in Beijing, he or she will also coordinate coverage with DJN, the FX Trader team and our Chinese-language reporting staff.
There’s also plenty of scope for writing — everything from leders to blogposts for our popular China Real Time blogsite.
Knowledge of Chinese is a plus, but is not required. Stamina is essential, along with a strong desire to live and work in the Middle Kingdom. The successful candidate will replace Jason Dean, who has just been named bureau chief of the Journal’s joint WSJ/DJN Chicago bureau.
WSJ reporter Power leaving for Brunswick Group
by Chris Roush
Stephen Power, a Wall Street Journal reporter known for his coverage of energy policy, is leaving the paper for a job at Brunswick Group.
In an e-mail to the staff, Power wrote, “Today’s my last day at The Wall Street Journal. I’m joining the Washington office of the Brunswick Group (http://www.brunswickgroup.com/index.aspx)
“Working for The Journal is the honor of honors – and a lot of fun. There aren’t many newspapers that still pay their reporters to test drive the Bugatti Veyron (http://www.bugatti.com/en/veyron-16.4.html), or explore the world of aerial coyote hunting. Thanks to The Journal, I’ve had these and many other unforgettable experiences.
“But what really makes The Journal special are all of you, and the standards you uphold each day. Thanks for everything you’ve taught me. I’m proud to have been your colleague and will miss you.”
Power will be a director on the firm’s Washington office. He worked at the Journal for 11 years, most recently covering energy policy and before that the automotive sector.
Before the Journal, Power worked at The Dallas Morning News, covering both business and local news, and also at Gannett News Service, reporting on issues affecting the Pacific Northwest.
Arkansas weekly biz paper undergoes redesign
by Chris Roush
Arkansas Business, a weekly business newspaper, rolled out Friday its first redesign since 1993.
A story on its website states, “Ron Reason of Chicago, an internationally known design, strategy and branding consultant, helped lead the charge to the new look. His experience includes redesigning the look of The Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age and Crain’s Chicago Business. Reason describes in a blog on his website what has changed in Arkansas Business.
“‘The newspaper is unveiling new features, more graphics, and new elements to distill and project the expertise of the subjects of its stories. Typographically, the new mix offers a greatly improved font for body text, as well as much greater contrast for headlines on the front page and on major stories inside, for department labels, and for boldface names within text — a key part of the publication each week,’ he writes.
“‘Making the paper easier for scanning was paramount, even though research shows a tremendous read-through rate, with the majority of readers spending 35 minutes or more with each issue. In-depth reading is an expectation with this audience, and the need to package longer stories with better photos and graphics has been addressed.’
“Arkansas Business Publisher Jeff Hankins notes in his column in Monday’s edition that this is the first redesign of the newspaper he’s seen since arriving at the publication in 1993.”
Read more here.
WSJ names new banking editor
by Chris Roush
Colin Barr of Fortune magazine will start Monday as the new banking editor of The Wall Street Journal.
He replaces Jared Sandberg, who left the Journal in late May to become editor of Bloomberg.com.
Barr tells Talking Biz News via e-mail that he will work for the Money & Investing section. Thursday was his last day at Fortune after nearly four years as a senior writer for the magazine.
Barr was named one of the top 25 finance bloggers this year by Time, and won a 2006 SABEW Best in Business award for the weekly Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street column.
Before joining Fortune, he was a writer and companies editor for nine years at TheStreet.com, and before that an editor at Dow Jones News Service.
He’s a 1991 Penn State graduate.
Biz news that is important to every American
by Chris Roush
Dave Walker of The New Orleans Times-Picayune interviewed Fox Business Network anchor Lou Dobbs about his work for the network.
Here is an excerpt:
Your first 100 episodes have certainly come at a news-rich time for your topic field.
Whether it’s the national debt ceiling, international trade, the international financial system, whether it’s the market – my gosh – job creation, housing, the list goes on. Every one of those issues is of paramount importance to the quality of life of every single American.
Aside from the reporting you initiate, who seeks your ear?
Like any of us, I have family and friends who are in a variety of walks of life. I’m a small-business owner as well. As a television and radio host, I am in daily contact with working men and women. It gives me, I think, a very good foundation in what is happening. Every day I am exposed to a variety of perspectives beyond just the content of the show itself.
New biz magazine in South Dakota
by Chris Roush
Angela Kennecke of KELO-TV in Sioux Falls, S.D., reports about BizNOW, a new business magazine in the city.
Kennecke writes, “Thumb through the pages of Sioux Falls newest magazine and you’ll see that it’s anything but traditional.
“‘We want people to know it’s cutting edge, it’s fun, it’s easy to read. We’re not you’re father’s business magazine,’ Steffanie Liston-Holtrop said.
“Liston-Holtrop and Charlotte Hofer say they simply saw a need in the city and decided to fill it.
“‘I think this idea was born over a cup of coffee. Steph and I were sitting together and we were thinking, there doesn’t seem to be a business magazine in Sioux Falls that is monthly that addresses the needs of the business community. Let’s start one,’ Hofer said.
“BizNOW tries to appeal to broad audience from someone just starting their career to middle managers looking to move up, to executives. They say they got a lot of attention for this doubled-sided cover issue that dealt with female and male business issues.”
Read more here.
Lack of biz coverage on California’s South Coast
by Chris Roush
Ray Estrada, former managing editor of the Pacific Coast Business Journal, writes for the Santa Barbara Independent about the slim business coverage in the market.
“Complicating matters more, in my opinion, is that the vast majority of South Coast business coverage is conducted by writers with little or no previous financial experience, in large part because younger writers tend to be cheaper than more experienced reporters such as myself. As such, there is a lack of institutional knowledge about the South Coast’s commercial community. No matter how talented a young journalist may be, it’s hard to write about what is happening today with little understanding of how things got to be that way.
“And the situation may not change any time soon, as many of the correspondents relied upon in Santa Barbara for business coverage aren’t actually paid staff members. Instead, many are part-time, often underpaid freelance writers who usually have another job to make ends meet. For instance, the full-time writing staff at today’s News-Press is a fraction of what it was in 1990 or even 2005. It has one designated business writer, while in 1990 it had three.”
Read more here.