I don’t often feature economics stories because so many are just too dense. So I was happy when I came across freelancer Katherine Reynolds Lewis’ piece at Bankrate.com. The story is broken into 10 slides that show how the federal funds rate set by the Federal Reserve Board affects consumers’ interest rates, credit [...]
It sort of got overlooked in the hubbub over Hurricane Irene and the ongoing coverage of regime change in Libya, but an interesting Bureau of Labor Statistics report out last week is a great springboard for a story about job and workplace safety. According to the preliminary findings of the National Census of Fatal Occupational [...]
It’s called insurance, but this beat is really about people, and the bad things that they hope won’t happen.
It’s about bills everyone pays, for products they are forced to buy, with little understanding of what they get in return. It’s about tragedy, families stricken with illness and death, households and communities struggling to overcome disaster.
The good news about the insurance beat is that there are many sources of information among regulators, industry groups, consumer groups, ratings agencies, researchers and trade publications. You don’t have to decipher rate filings or market-conduct exams alone. However, be aware of the biases that each party might bring to bear on an issue and seek multiple interpretations on contentious topics.
Insurance companies don’t speak English. Neither do regulators, actuaries or even lawmakers for that matter.
The challenge to getting a good insurance story into print, and an even bigger obstacle to getting it onto the air, is translating it into common words.
Then think about what you see and hear as you report, and ask if it makes sense.
This process of translating and challenging will help you dig beneath the Astroturf to find real dirt and real stories.
UNTOLD DRAMA: What the insurance reporter sees.
THE PLAGUE: How the rest of the newsroom views insurance.
Humor can be helpful on the insurance beat, but a good handle on some of terms thrown around is a necessity.
I swore I would never write about insurance, but then there were the Florida hurricanes. Houses literally rotted a year later while insurers withheld checks, banking on a “tweak” in state law to get out of paying for storm-surge damage.
And there was the painful story of the mother whose daughter wasted away into the grave from anorexia, while her insurance company refused to allow continued psychiatric counseling. Insurers – lots of them nationwide – were using call-center “doctors” to dole out limited visits to mental health providers.
We all know that almost any story can be a business story, but I was still surprised to see Judy Dutton’s Wired piece about women selling their breast milk. She writes:
“In an era when the benefits of breast milk are better understood and more scientifically certain than ever, demand for it has created a niche industry.”
Hurricane Irene’s winds have waned but the economic waves generated by the weekend storm will be lapping at the economy for some time to come. If you’re casting about for a local angle to relate to the weather coverage, below are a few more ideas, in addition to my previous post on Irene: Coverage guide: [...]
