Tag Archives: AP
WSJ lifestyle magazine to rely on luxury ads
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Jeremy Herron of the Associated Press writes Wednesday about the new magazine, WSJ., being launched by The Wall Stret Journal.
Herron writes, “‘Going after affluent readers and trying to attract luxury advertisers isn’t exactly a unique strategy,’ said Mike Simonton, a media analyst at Fitch Ratings, a credit analysis agency.
“But he questions whether that market will hold.
“‘While more resilient than the middle-class and mass-market merchandisers, we think this target will still be negatively impacted by a downturn; making it an interesting time to introduce this product,’ he said.
“WSJ will debut on Sept. 3 as a quarterly publication before going monthly in 2009. It will be distributed with the Journal’s Saturday edition and won’t be sold separately.
“The company said the magazine will cover ‘modern wealth,’ with topics that include cars, fashion, philanthropy and travel.”
Read more here.
More details from AP's biz desk revamp
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New Associated Press business editor Hal Ritter sent an e-mail to the staff earlier this week in which he discussed the overhaul where the wire service will focus on 12 core beats.
Here are some additional details of the reorganization, per Ritter’s e-mail:
“All domestic reporters will be on one of 12 core beats. International business reporters, when they join Business News, will be a mix of beat reporters and GAs because of the variety of stories that need to be covered overseas. Aggressively staffing the 12 beats will give us:
“Deeper coverage of breaking news. Beat reporters can write a spot news story faster and better than a general assignment reporter. They can add context, perspective and, when needed, analysis to a routine news story that GAs are unable to. We want coverage from a NewsAlert on to be as authoritative and useful to readers as possible. We want Web customers to choose AP spot stories over those of competitors they have access to. Deeper, more authoritative coverage of breaking news is an important goal — and will be a key benefit — of the new beat system.
“More scoops. Breaking news will be a core value in Business News. Scoops are critically important to making customers — and their readers — think of AP as a consistent source of important news they can’t get anywhere else. To consider us indispensable. News organizations that don’t break news think it’s hard to do. It’s not. It requires making a commitment and setting reporters up to succeed. We’ll make the commitment, and the move to reporting teams covering beats will position people to succeed. We can also leverage the AP brand, our multiple platforms and our customer base to convince sources that we are the news organization of choice to offer important news. The word ‘important’ is indeed important. Whether news a company doesn’t want revealed or news a company is offering us, we want to break big stories.
“More excellent enterprise. Delivering outstanding enterprise stories on all 12 beats will be critically important to serving newspaper, broadcast and Web customers better. We’ll work hard to make our spot news more valuable than competitors’. We’ll break more stories through beat reporting. But we also must give customers significantly more enterprise. Stories that are authoritative, compelling and useful to their readers – and that no one else has. Enterprise will take many forms, but almost all will be stories developed off the news or by working a beat. We want stories that are timely and of great value to readers interested in the beat.”
AP overhauls biz desk to focus on 12 core beats
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The Associated Press announced a sweeping change to its business news operations on Wednesday in which the wire service will focus its future coverage on 12 core beats.
“Our goal is to improve everything we do so we can be more successful in an increasingly competitive market for business news,â€? said business editor Hal Ritter in a statement. “Building these beats will allow us to deepen our coverage of spot news, break more news and produce more outstanding enterprise.â€?
Reporters will be based in New York, Washington and 28 other domestic bureaus to provide authoritative coverage of companies and news sources on each beat. The teams will have five to 10 reporters each. Some two dozen business reporters in international bureaus will provide additional coverage of the beats.
Among the 12 beat editors are Joyce M. Rosenberg (financial markets), Patrick Rizzo (economy), Amy Finkelstein (retailing), Brian Bergstein (technology), Laura Impellizzeri (media, entertainment, leisure and lodging), Michael Lee (health care), Joseph Altman (autos), Greg Stec (airlines), Charles Sheehan (energy) and David Brinkerhoff (manufacturing).
Rounding out the 12 are Trevor Delaney and Noelle Knox, previously announced as the AP’s new editors for personal finance and real estate, respectively.
Read more here.
Business changes in the 2008 AP stylebook
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Among the changes in the 2008 Associated Press stylebook, used on business news desks around the country, are new entries for products like the iPhone and technology news terms such as “podcasting” and “text messaging.”
“Anti-spyware” and “high-definition” are also new busines terms in the book.
The entry for “company names” has grown to 3 1/2 pages, listing the formal names of the top 100 U.S. companies and 50 major non-U.S. firms. The new “cable networks” and “movie studios” entries list the leading entities in those media — from A&E to the Weather Channel and from Columbia TriStar to The Weinstein Co. — as well as their owners.
The revised Business Guidelines section contains new primers on covering bankruptcy and mergers and acquisitions, and interpreting proxy statements.
AP biz desk to undergo reorganization next month
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Kyle Austin of RacePoint Group interviewed Associated Press national tech editor Brian Bergstein on his blog and came away with some details about the reorganization of the AP business news desk.
Here is an excerpt:
RaceTalk: So congratulations on being named national technology editor at the Associated Press. What will your new role entail? Also, who will you report to and can you share who else makes up the rest of the technology unit at the AP?
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BB: The entire business news desk of the AP, of which the tech desk is part, is being reorganized. Previously we had some nationally based business and tech reporters, including me, but many more reporters were part of local bureaus and organized their coverage regionally. Now that structure is being blown up, and all AP business writers will be part of the national business desk, as I was, and we will organize coverage around beats rather than region. So previously, for example, we had someone in Atlanta covering Delta Airlines (in addition to other Atlanta companies) and someone in Dallas covering American Airlines (in addition to other Texas companies), but now we have a national airlines team. Similarly, you probably encountered Mark Jewell, the Boston business writer, for some Boston tech or business stories. Now he is going to be writing full-time about personal finance, on a national basis. So think of our tech coverage unfolding that same way. We now will have nine technology reporters around the country, in New York, Washington, D.C., Seattle and San Francisco, reporting to me as their editor. Other AP reporters elsewhere can and will still contribute tech stories, but for these nine, it’s their full-time beat. We’ll organize it along certain beats in tech, such as chips, PCs, wireless, business software, and so on. In time it should be much easier for PR people to figure out whom to pitch on a certain story.
Read more here.
AP hires new personal finance editor
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Trevor Delaney will join the Associated Press next month as personal finance editor, according to an e-mail announcement Friday from new AP business editor Hal Ritter.Â
The personal finance editor slot is a new position at AP that will oversee the development of and direct a new AP personal finance service for print and online. Â
Ritter wrote, “Trevor is the editorial director for personal finance at Black Enterprise magazine. He’s in charge of personal finance coverage across all platforms at the company — the magazine, web site, television and radio. Before joining BE, he worked at ALM Media (formerly American Lawyer Media), where he launched and then ran two magazines, Law Firm Inc. and Small Firm Business. Before ALM Media, he was a staff writer for SmartMoney and wrote for the investing section of the magazine.
“Trevor has a degree in business from Georgetown, a law degree from Emory University School of Law and a master’s in journalism from Columbia. His experience launching products and driving personal finance coverage as both reporter and editor is the combination we were looking for to lead personal finance coverage at the AP. Trevor will start July 16.”
At Black Enterprise, one of Delaney’s chief responsibilities was writing and editing the Moneywise section of the magazine, the department that offers expert money management and investment advice, and contributing to the writing and editing of financial-related feature stories.
AP biz news, with new editor, to launch new coverage initiatives
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The Associated Press business news operation, which now has a new leader in business editor Hal Ritter, is hiring for at least 10 reporting and editing spots in the coming weeks.
Some of the hires will be part of new initiatives by the wire service in personal finance and in writing about the financial impact of general news stories.
In New York, there are three positions open, including a personal finance editor, a spot news editor and a reporter for the Money & Markets team. The personal finance editor slot is a new position that will oversee the development of and direct a new AP personal finance service for print and online. Â
In the AP bureau in Washington, there are three slots available. One is an editor overseeing business coverage of regulatory agencies, the Supreme Court and Congress.
But the other two D.C. positions are for AP’s upcoming “Financial Impact” initiative. One is an editor, and the other is a reporter. These business journalists will focus on the ”financial impact of general news events, with an emphasis on state legislative and regulatory initiatives,” according to the job descriptions.Â
The open bureau positions include a retail reporter in Seattle to replace Elizabeth Gillespie, who has left the AP, and a retail reporter slot in Bentonville, Ark., headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., to replace Marcus Kabel, who has transferred to the AP bureau in Atlanta.
In addition, the AP is seeking a reporter to cover financial institutions on the West Coast such as Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual. The slot, previously held by May Wong, who has left the AP, is based in San Francisco. AP is also seeking a finance reporter to cover commodities and futures trading to be based in Chicago.
Ritter named new AP business editor
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Hal Ritter, who was the deputy managing editor for business coverage at USA Today when it launched back in 1982, has been named the new business editor at the Associated Press, sources confirmed.
Ritter resigned from USA Today in 2004 as managing editor of news in the wake of allegations about reporter Jack Kelley’s sourcing for stories. When he resigned, Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz called him a “divisive figure” in the newsroom.
Ritter joined the Money section of USA Today as one of two deputy managing editors the summer before the newspaper’s launch in September 1982.
He became managing editor of Money in 1985, and initiated coverage of hard business stories, which helped drive the nationally distributed paper to respectability and then major-league status. Those editorial efforts also finally drew attention from a previously elusive audience — many of the nation’s top CEOs and boardroom types.
He started as a reporter at Gannett’s evening newspaper in Rochester, N.Y. He became an editor in 1978. In September 1980, he left Rochester to attend the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where he received his MBA in 1982.
Ritter is a 1974 graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas.
UPDATE: AP story on Ritter’s appointment is now out here.
Confusion with CPI numbers
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Hal Morris, writing on his Grumpy Editor blog, notes that business journalists covering the same Consumer Price Index statistics released Friday, reported different views on where the economy is headed.
Morris writes, “Note the differences in the treatment, including figures, with the same information from the Labor Department.
“Under the headline, “Slowdown in U.S. Helps to Damp Inflation,” The Wall Street Journal on Saturday noted in its lead that a faltering economy ‘is helping keep overall inflation in check.’
“WSJ writer Kelly Evans added that the CPI rose 0.8 percent in May but core prices (excluding food and energy) rose 2.3 percent from a year earlier. ‘The data suggest that underlying inflation remains contained,’ Evans added.
“Contrast that with the Associated Press version, working from the same Labor Department material. Under a typical headline, “Pace of inflation picking up,” AP’s Martin Crutsinger wrote, ‘Soaring energy costs pushed inflation up in May at the fastest pace in six months.’ Then he noted ‘consumer prices rose by 0.6 percent in all, the biggest one-month increase since November.’â€?
Read more here.
Reporting on Yahoo! earnings missed the mark
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TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs writes that the stories about Yahoo’s earnings were off the mark in reporting that the results weren’t as bad as expected.
“The confusion, I believe, stems from the business media’s need to attach a meaningful-sounding explanation to a blip in Yahoo!’s stock price, a thinly traded after-hours bounce after the company reported post-market close Tuesday.
“Take a look at this Associated Press headline, for example:
“The article’s second sentence gets right to work telling this tale of two expectations:
Read more here.Â