McGraw Center for Business Journalism gives four grants
Four veteran journalists have won grants of up to $15,000 as recipients of the sixth round of the McGraw Fellowships for Business Journalism. The winning projects will explore issues ranging from water rights on the Mexican border and the revival of the copper industry in Arizona, to the foreclosure risks faced by elderly homeowners and whether carbon capture will finally […]
How Tim Hortons refused to cooperate with a business reporter
Duncan Hood of The Toronto Globe and Mail writes about how restaurant chain Tim Hortons declined to cooperate with its retail reporter in writing a story about its changes. Hood writes, “To find out what was going on, we enlisted The Globe’s award-winning retailing reporter, Marina Strauss, who boasts nearly 40 years of experience. She started […]
How Forbes reports its billionaires list
Kerry Dolan, assistant managing editor of wealth at Forbes, talked about how its editors and reporters calculate wealth in a new podcast about how the business magazine compiles its lists. Forbes is known for calculating the wealth of the 1,810 billionaires in the world. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been No. 1 on the list […]
When business journalists use bad quotes
Wall Street is throwing the most money at U.S. energy companies since at least 2000 amid growing confidence that the industry is emerging from the worst downturn in a generation. – Bloomberg Don’t get confused. Contrary to popular opinion (and many careless business writers), “Wall Street” usually doesn’t throw money at companies at all. The […]
From softball reporter to business reporter
Tom Henderson of Crain’s Detroit Business writes about how his shared love of softball with Detroit Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch, who died this weekend, turned him into a business reporter. Henderson writes, “The caller was the editor of the Freep‘s business section. He wanted to do a profile of Ilitch, who then, and later, […]
Bloomberg’s O’Brien on the craft of biz news commentary
Timothy O’Brien, executive editor of Bloomberg View and Bloomberg Gadfly, talks about the art of business news commentary. Here is an excerpt: What is the primary goal of Bloomberg Gadfly, and Bloomberg View as a whole? We’re the commentary arm of Bloomberg News and our goal is to offer our readers a lens on the […]
When the largest company HQ in Peoria decides to move
Matt Buedel is a business reporter at the Peoria Journal-Star newspaper in Illinois, a city whose biggest headquarters — Caterpillar Inc. — announced last week it was moving to the Chicago area. Buedel has been covering the manufacturer since March 2016. He grew up in Springfield and has a journalism degree from Bradley University. He […]
How the Chicago Tribune took on the pharmaceutical industry
Jackie Spinner of Columbia Journalism Review writes about how the Chicago Tribune’s series on the pharmaceutical industry came about. Spinner writes, “The three-part investigative project focuses on hidden interactions between prescription medicines that could have life-threatening consequences if taken together. The first of the ‘Dangerous Doses’ series, published a year ago, identified four potentially unsafe drug […]
When the name of a boat is not a business news story
“Turns out overdraft fees are still big moneymakers for some banks. So much so that a former chief executive of a midsize bank named his boat after the fee.” – Washington Post “Among the juicy details included in a new consumer advocacy lawsuit filed Thursday was this one: The former CEO of a Midwest bank actually […]
WSJ’s Baker: I have not banned “lie” when covering Trump
Wall Street Journal editor Gerard Baker expands on comments he made Sunday on “Meet the Press” about using the word “lie” when referring to false statements made by president-elect Donald Trump. Baker writes, “Note that I said I’d be ‘careful’ in using the word ‘lie.’ I didn’t ban the word from the Journal’s lexicon. Evidently, this carefulness […]
