Tag Archives: Coverage
FairWarning.org receives more funding
by Chris Roush
FairWarning.org, a Calfornia-based website that covers safety, health and corporate conduct, has been awarded more funding.
Hieronymus Charities, the family foundation of best-selling mystery writer Michael Connelly, recently donated $10,000 to FairWarning.
Connelly, a former Los Angeles Times reporter, has a global following as the author of the acclaimed Harry Bosch murder mysteries and “Lincoln Lawyer” legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 39 languages and have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.
The Streisand Foundation has donated $5,000 to support environmental health reporting by FairWarning. The foundation provides funding for causes important to recording artist Barbra Streisand, including civil rights, women’s health and environmental protection.
“These grants will help to advance our mission of providing strong accountability journalism,” said Myron Levin, executive director and editor of FairWarning, in a statement. “And, of course, we are grateful that our efforts have been recognized by these two great artists.”
Covering Latin American biz news from Latin America
by Chris Roush
TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
SANTIAGO — Business News Americas news staff begins showing up at 7 a.m. in its Santiago, Chile office, and by the end of the day will have produced 100 to 120 stories about different industries throughout Latin America.
Its readers are anyone who is interested in knowing what´s going on in the business world in these markets, and its customers read its content on its website and in daily e-mail newsletters. Revenue last year reached $12 million, and, says data and news manager Christopher Lenton, ¨We think there is a lot of room to grow.¨
Lenton says that the news service´s most direct competitors are Reuters and Bloomberg, but it does not cover some news stories such as the daily stock market. ¨If something affects a stock price considerably, we´ll cover it, but we don´t do Bloomberg-type ticker news,¨ he said.
The staff is an international one. This morning, there were editors from California and England manning the desk, as well as three editors from Chile who had spent considerable time in the United States. All are bilingual. The Santiago office, which is the headquarters of the news operation, has a staff of about 50, which includes translators and editors as well as reporters. It is located in the district of Santiago called ¨Sanhattan¨ by the locals.
The reporting staff focus on certain industries — oil, gas, electricity, IT, telecom, mining, banking, insurance, water and infrastructure — and are spread throughout the region. There are two reporters in Argentina, four in Brazil, two in Mexico and one in Colombia in addition to the staff in Santiago.
Lenton, who was educated in the United States but whose father was an Argentinian who worked for the United Nations, says that Business News America hopes to open a full-time office in Mexico City later this year and one in Brazil in 2013.
Stories on the Business News Americas site on Monday morning included one about red tape slowing mining projects in Brazil and five infrastructure projects going on at Latin American airports during the second quarter. The news service also does in-depth Q&A interviews with an industry leader and compiles industry reports that it sells to clients as well. One that Talking Biz News looked at sells for $199 to Business News Americas subscribers and $249 to nonsubscribers.
The company recently celebrated its 15th anniversary in business. It was started by a group of friends who, says Lenton, provided ¨a small service for people interested in investing in Chile mining.¨
The service is looking to hire journalists with bilingual skills.
The Facebook journalism bubble
by Chris Roush
Steven Levy of Wired writes about the massive amount of coverage being devoted to Facebook even after its initial public offering.
Levy writes, ¨Because of some funny business when the big day finally arrived — you can read about this, oh, just about everywhere — the IPO actually triggered yet another wave of Facebook news, along with endless arguments about how the IPO was botched, or whether it really was botched. And the post-mortems had barely begun when Zuckerberg poked his own hole in the quiet period by posting a photo of his wedding, held barely after the peals of the (cracked) NASDAQ bell had faded. The nuptial was a determinedly low-key event, but for all the press commentary it generated, you’d think it was a geek version of Will and Kate.
¨So we’re still in the Facebook Journalism Bubble, reading basically the same articles by the same writers. Meanwhile, other stories get short shrift. Most of the venues that budgeted multiple Facebook posts every day barely found room for a story or two about the first private space vehicle to dock with the International Space Station. Surely that’s as big a story as discovering who designed Mrs. Zuckerberg’s wedding gown.
¨Which is not to say that there aren’t plenty of unexplored angles left in the Facebook saga. But preciously few in the sea of coverage dip into the real and persistent news of Facebook — it’s a company driving a tech-based redefinition of how we share human experience.¨
Read more here.
Whither business news in three Southern cities
by Chris Roush
TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
The future of daily business news in three Southern cities — Birmingham and Mobile in Alabama and New Orleans — is up in the air in the wake of a decision by the parent company of daily papers in those cities to cut to a three-day printing schedule.
Newhouse’s Advance Publications owns all three papers, the Birmingham News, the Mobile Press-Register and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.
Talking Biz News checked with newsroom personnel at all three papers, and while staffers believe that their media organizations will continue to cover business news in some way, the depth and breadth is still to be determined.
It’s unclear what the future holds for The Times-Picayune business desk in New Orleans.
Like the rest of the news staff, it will learn its fate in early June. At that point it should begin to get an idea about what the business desk will look like going forward, or whether it will even continue to have a business desk, according to one staffer there with knowledge of the situation.
In Mobile, which is 90 minutes from New Orleans, a staffer told Talking Biz News that they are “confident there will still be a business coverage in each of the print editions as well as the digital content.”
In Birmingham, a revamped business news section was introduced two years ago. However, the editor and managing editor of the paper have both announced their departures.
“I hope strong business coverage remains a priority in the state’s largest metro area and most significant business center,” said one staffer in Birmingham. ”It’s particularly important now, with the economic impact of the largest government bankruptcy in U.S. history. But, to be honest, but only time will tell where it fits in the new model.”
It should be noted that the Newhouse media empire also owns the Birmingham Business Journal, but does not own business weeklies in Mobile or New Orleans. As far as Talking Biz News could determine, there is no business weekly in Mobile.
New biz reporter asks for advice from biz community
by Chris Roush
Brittany Hoover, the new business reporter at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in Texas, asks her readers for advice on what they want to see in terms of business coverage.
Hoover writes, “Please share with me the types of stories you would like to see more of, as well as the business professionals you’d like to know more about. Who do you consider the movers and shakers in Lubbock?
“What local establishment has a story that needs to be told?
“Visit lubbockonline.com and comment on my column, or send me an email at brittany.hoover@lubbockonline.com.
“Let me know about your events. I can’t promise to be at every function in town — business is thriving in Lubbock — but I’ll do my best.
“Now, after asking my questions, I’ll answer some you may have about this new face on the business cover.
“I’ve spent the last six months covering higher education and health for The A-J. Before that, I was a general assignments reporter for The Pine Bluff Commercial in Arkansas.”
Read more here.
WNYC radio in New York starts weekly radio biz show
by Chris Roush
A New York radio station, WNYC, is starting a weekly news show called “Money Talking” that will focus on the major business and economics news of the day.
Jeff Greenfield, the host of the show, writes, “Rather than the latest headline about the deficit fight, we’ll ask: Is a balanced budget desirable, or even possible? Rather than rehash the latest insider trading case, we ask: Should the government be using its resources to prosecute this at all? Rather than the latest case of CEO misbehavior, we’ll ask: Just how badly can you behave before you get fired?
“What we’re looking to do, at root, is to ask — and answer — the questions that go to the heart of the matter. Take our first episode: are student loans — now hitting the $1 trillion mark — the next bubble? And could that inflict as much damage as the housing meltdown?
“We’ll do this it with some highly high-profile names in business journalism; folks like Joe Nocera of the New York Times; Rana Foroohar of TIME Magazine. And on this page, I’ll be offering thoughts on the issues we’ve raised.”
Read more here. Greenfield is currently the host of the PBS show “Need to Know.”
Behind the scenes at Marketplace
by Chris Roush
Adam Popsecu of LA Weekly writes Thursday about the making of the Marketplace Morning Report, a business news show that airs on NPR stations and is produced in Los Angeles in the middle of the night.
Popescu writes, “This small team consistently produces the most popular of the Marketplace family of shows — which include the daytime show Marketplace, Marketplace Money and Marketplace Tech Report. But for all their camaraderie, members of the overnight crew know they can’t work this shift forever. The hours are taxing. There’s a saying around the office that every year working the overnight translates to losing one year of your life.
“To keep morale (and their bodies) up, some members of the team swear by melatonin. Others, including Lindsey, use eye shades and blackout curtains to ensure sleep during daylight hours.
“But even after almost seven years working overnight shifts in Washington, D.C., as a reporter for The White House Bulletin, followed by two stints as a reporter and then producer with Marketplace, Lindsey maintains that he’s undeterred by the schedule.
“‘It becomes your normal life. It doesn’t bother my body clock,’ he says.”
Readmore here.
New York paper revamps biz coverage
by Chris Roush
Steve Sink, the business editor of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, writes about how the Gannett paper’s business coverage is being revamped.
Sink writes, “We’ll devote this section each Sunday to those whose vision and determination enabled Rochester to be a national leader during both the recession and recovery, as Parker described and as Jeff Blackwell’s story on this page attests.
“New Sunday features include contributions from the community. We have a whole bunch of smart people writing blog postings at our new Web section — RochesterNext.com — and we’ll give you highlights each week on Page 2E. In addition, we’ll tap an expert to address key issues on Page 4E.
“Staffer Sean Lahman’s first-rate reporting on local patents, which had been running on Mondays, moves into a new natural home in this section on Page 3E. Sean will be joined on the page by a Q-and-A with a local businessperson who won’t necessarily be a well-known name but who will be worth an introduction.
“We kept some favorite features, including Tom Tobin’s Comings and Goings column on new and departing businesses, and Nick Francesco’s long-running computer help column.”
Read more here.
Biz paper editor wants stories about progress
by Chris Roush
Howard Burns, the new editor of the Pittsburgh Business Times, writes about his vision of future coverage in the American City Business Journals paper.
Burns writes, “As I begin my tenure as editor of the Business Times, I want us to be able to tell more stories of progress. More stories of companies adding workers and bringing jobs back from the abyss. More stories of creative thinking and innovation. More stories of ordinary people once again having the opportunity to relish the fruits of a good day’s work.
“The news won’t always be pretty. There’s still a long road to hoe. A repeat of the financial meltdown of ’08 is possible; some say inevitable. But when we see what’s going on in our city in such thriving sectors as energy, finance and health care, there’s reason for optimism. We are fortunate in that respect.
“As someone who lived in Los Angeles for 25 years, covered the entertainment industry as a reporter and editor, and saw one of the city’s most critical industries contract to the point where a stunning number of very talented people became enveloped by corporate downsizing, ageism and all the other ugly realities of job loss, coming to Pittsburgh at this point in time is indeed a welcome change.”
Read more here. A subscription is required.
Houston’s Steffy among tops in the field
by Chris Roush
Dean Rotbart of NewsBios.com writes for Examiner.com about Houston Chronicle business columnist Loren Steffy, whom he says has “earned a national reputation for quality, insightful reporting that clearly places him among the most-respected financial writers in the country.”
“Recently Steffy has been tracking the travails of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy, which he describes as ‘a Frankenstein’s monster of finance.’ Steffy likens the company’s chief executive and co-founder, Aubrey McClendon, to a ‘gunslinger’ and speculates that McClendon’s sunset may be approaching.
“Steffy began reporting for the Chronicle in 2004, having worked in the Lone Star State since graduating from Texas A&M with a degree in journalism in 1986. Steffy opened Bloomberg News’s Dallas bureau in 1992, and went on to serve as Dallas and Texas bureau chief for the financial news service. Earlier, he worked at the Dallas Times Herald, Dallas Business Journal and the Arlington Daily News.
“His 2010 quick book, Drowning in Oil: BP and the Reckless Pursuit of Profit was drawn heavily from his reporting for the Chronicle and completed during a one-month leave.”
Read more here.