Tag Archives: SABEW
Choyke leaving Virginian-Pilot
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Bill Choyke, who was business editor at the Virginian-Pilot until earlier this year before taking on a management role, will be leaving the paper on Dec. 31.
Choyke is also a board member of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
Choyke became director of community news at the paper at the end of July. He oversaw six local publications. That unit is being reorganized as part of a newspaper-wide restructuring.
Choyke began his professional career at his hometown newspaper in Waukegan, Ill., after graduating from Ohio University in Athens. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1975, and provided coverage in the nation’s capital for a number of Texas newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News from 1981 to 1989.
Awarded a Batten Fellowship at The Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia, he received his MBA in 1991.
Choyke joined Gannett Co. in 1993 as marketing director for its newspaper in Iowa City, Iowa, and moved back to the newsroom in 1995, serving primarily in Nashville as an editor, including assistant managing editor for business. He became business editor of The Virginian-Pilot in March 2003.
Maryland business editor reassigned to city desk
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Clifford Cumber, previously the business editor at the Frederick News-Post in Maryland, is now an assistant city editor at the paper as part of a reorganization at the paper that included layoffs in the newsroom.
Cumber, a board member of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, remains responsible for the daily business section and Monday’s agriculture page.
Cumber writes, “Business and politics. What more natural intersection could there be?
“Business reporters Ed Waters Jr. and Ike Wilson are still on my team, but now they’ll be joined by county reporter Meg Tully, Frederick City Hall reporter Adam Behsudi, and Fort Detrick and military reporter Justin Palk.
“Let me tell you, that’s not a half bad team right there, and I have plans for them.
“I’ve already started work on morphing the business blog (originally named ‘Biz Blog’) into a Business & Government blog and shanghaiing my reporters into filing for it everyday.”
Read more here.
SABEW Best in Business contest dates announced
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The Society of American Business Editors and Writers announced its mandatory entry dates for its annual Best in Business contest.
The mandatory dates for newspaper business sections in the general excellence category are Thursday, May 1; Sunday, July 13; and Wednesday, Sept. 24.
In addition, editors can chose any Monday or Tuesday edition, any Friday or Saturday edition, and any Sunday edition.
For the magazine general excellence category , the mandatory entry date is the May issue or the first issue published after May.
For blogs, the mandatory entry date is Friday, Jan. 11, or the first blog entry after Jan. 11.
Read more here. The deadline for entries is Jan. 30, 2009.
SABEW names interim executive director, explores relocation
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The Society of American Business Editors and Writers named a former organization president as its interim executive director and said it is exploring moving its headquarters from its current location at the University of Missouri.
Dave Beal, retired business editor and columnist at the St. Paul Pioneer Press and a past president, succeeds Carrie Paden, who left the organization for health reasons.
Beal will work under contract to the SABEW board to oversee all aspects of day-to-day operations. He will serve until the appointment of a permanent executive director, which is being deferred while the board evaluates the potential for relocating the society’s headquarters. A task force headed by SABEW past president Dave Kansas, of FiLife.com, is in the process of soliciting proposals from interested university partners.
As SABEW’s president in 1983-84, Beal organized and led the drive to anchor the society’s headquarters at Missouri, where it continues to be based.
Beal retired in 2006 after 25 years with the Pioneer Press. He still writes a business column occasionally for the paper, does the “Capitol Beat” column for Twin Cities Business monthly magazine and contributes to the MinnPost.com online newspaper site.
SABEW to hold call Thursday on writing personal finance stories
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The Society of American Business Editors and Writers will hold a conference call Thursday on personal finance stories to write now during the Wall Street turmoil.
The call will be held at noon Eastern Standard Time.
Panelists on the call will be Gail MarksJarvis, the personal finance and markets columnist at the Chicago Tribune; John Wasik, the personal finance columnist for Bloomberg News; and Pamela Yip, the personal finance columnist at the Dallas Morning News.
Marty Steffens, the SABEW chair at the University of Missouri, will moderate the panel.
Those wishing to join the call should dial 1-218-936-7999. You will be prompted for the access code, which is 316748. In order for SABEW to estimate the number of callers, please send an e-mail to SABEW at sabew@missouri.edu.
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To send questions in advance or during the call, please e-mail Steffens at steffensm@missouri.edu.
Bureau of Economic Analysis to offer biz journalists help on data
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The Bureau of Economic Analysis is releasing economic data for more than 350 metropolitan areas on Thursday, and it’s going to provide help to business journalists in deciphering those numbers.
The data will show the size of a city’s economy, learn whether it’s growing or declining and what industries are driving it as the BEA will release the second annual estimates of gross domestic product for 363 metropolitan statistical areas. Â
These estimates will provide a wealth of possible local economic stories. On the call will be Sharon Panek, chief of the Gross Domestic Product by State Services section of BEA’s Regional Economic Analysis Division. The call will be moderated by Marty Steffens, who is the Society of American Business Editors and Writers chair at the University of Missouri.
The call will be at 2 p.m. EDT. To access the call, dial 800-369-3330. The passcode is 36047.
The gross domestic product of a metropolitan area is a measurement of that area’s economic output. It is the sum of all industries in that area and is the local counterpart to the national gross domestic product.
Covering banks during a time of financial crisis
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The Society of American Business Editors and Writers will hold a conference call Wednesday at noon EST for reporters on covering banks and the banking industry during the current economic upheaval.
The panelists on the call will be Drew DeSilver, banking and public companies reporter at the Seattle Times; Bernie Kohn, investigations editor at the Baltimore Sun and current SABEW president; and Mark Davis, banking reporter at the Kansas City Star.
Marty Steffens, a University of Missouri professor who holds the SABEW chair, will moderate the call.
Those wishing to join the call should dial 1-218-936-7999. You will be prompted for the access code, which is 316748.
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To send questions in advance or during the call, please e-mail Steffens at steffensm@missouri.edu.
SABEW to honor "Best of the Best"
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The Society of American Business Editors and Writers will add a new category to its annual “Best in Business” awards to honor exceptional business journalism.
The new Best of the Best awards, which will be given for the first time at the 2009 spring conference in Denver, are designed to reward the very best work entered in SABEW’s Best in Business contest.
After Best in Business judging is completed, two uber-judging panels (one for General Excellence, one for all other categories) will get all the winning entries. The judging panels will have wide discretion in picking Best of the Best winners.
In the Best of the Best judging process, Best in Business award winners will not be compared to one another.
Rather, they will be measured against the Best of the Best judges’ own definition of excellence in whatever category of business journalism they are entered. Only those that rise above the general level of excellence shown in the larger group of all Best in Business contest winners will be honored as Best of the Best.
Judges will honor only the very best work, and will not feel obligated to hand out any Best of the Best awards if they feel none is warranted.
The Best of the Best winners will be announced at the annual Best in Business ceremony during the spring conference. All other winners will be announced in March, as always.
Bank reporting tip: Cull FDIC "call reports" for signs of failing banks
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Sean Sposito, a University of Missouri journalism student attending the fall Society of American Business Editors and Writers workshop in Kansas City, filed this report on using FDIC documents to search for failing banks.
Here is Sposito’s report:
A bank failure here in Kansas City several months ago was reason enough to take heed of what Susan Zubradt had to say.Â
A Kansas City Federal Reserve official, Zubradt said there are tell tale signs to a bank that is close to shutting down.Â
Studying call reports, or weekly quarterly reports that all banks need to make available to the FDIC, is one of the first places to turn, she said. Â
“The depth of information in the call report … that really did lay out a lot or more detail then you would find in SEC documents,” said Bernie Kohn, of the Baltimore Sun who is also the current SABEW president.Â
It’s “some of the best information out there out of any financial institution.”Â
Zubradt said indicators, such as the bank’s quarterly earnings, past due loans and loan loss reserves, can be found within the reports.
“You can really dig in and find out the better questions,” she said of the reports.Â
One SABEW member asked if there was a tell tale sign that could signal a collapse.
Zubradt said no but added that by keeping up with federal agency Web sites, you can find delinquencies that otherwise might go unnoticed.Â
Here are some of the sources of information she suggested:Â
Biz journalists doing good job with crisis, could do better
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I interviewed Bernie Kohn, the president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and the head of the investigations team at the Baltimore Sun, on Tuesday to get his impressions of how the business media was covering the current economic crisis.
Here are some of his thoughts:
On whether the business media could have anticipated the crisis: “I think we did a good job in anticipating the component parts, but I’m not sure anyone saw how they all fit the way they did. It’s easy to place blame on media, but clearly, the Secretary of the Treasury didn’t see this either. Nor the chairman of the Fed. It’s hard to foresee panic, which is a human reaction rather than an economic one.”
What business journalism can do better: “Don’t forget the explainer. Everyone is doing the consumer Q&A and the mainbar piece, but those who can make sense of these swirling forces adds extra value. And be smartly local. Not man on the street, or stockbroker-handholding stories, but real measurable impact stories – like customers of a local brokerage whose funds were swept into a money market fund that broke the buck essentially seeing their accounts frozen as the market went to hell. Keep close watch on local banks with lots of bad loans and weak capital and be ready for the possibility of a Friday night failure. Be aware of what local businesses are particularly dependent on credit from outlets that may be drying up. If all you’re doing is duplicating the wires or the New York Times, why should people be reading or listening to you?”
Read the rest of the interview, posted on the SABEW site, here.