Andrew Leckey

The Greatest Generation of business journalists will come from today’s university students.

A perfect storm of events, technology and globalization has equipped this generation to better understand and effectively report on the world of money than any that preceded it.

Its words and visuals for financial issues that matter will also carry faster and further than ever before to a mass audience.

Just as Tom Brokaw couldn’t dub the Depression/World War II generation “The Greatest” until long after the fact, time and perspective will be required here as well.

But here are seven advantages this generation has going for it:

• It has seen a dramatic economic downturn and volatile financial markets directly impact family finances. Job security, home values and money issues have been as common dinner discussion topics as the weather. This generation “gets it.”
• It has watched giant investment scams, inflated executive compensation, corporate failures and government bailouts dominate the news. As a result, it takes nothing for granted and possesses a healthy degree of skepticism.

• Instant access to financial data and information, the ability to report immediately and multimedia platforms help this generation tell dynamic stories. There are apps for everything. Numbers-heavy data can be tailor-made to the interests of consumers and readily accessible through clicks, pull-downs and other features.
• The branding of most everything is an ongoing part of its life. There is understanding that products, services, companies and industries may not last forever. Web and cellular phone leadership, for example, has changed hands many times in this generation’s lifetime. Car brands come and go. You must keep up. These young people mourned Steve Jobs’ passing and hope Apple Inc. innovations continue unabated.
• An array of views on current events—from the reliable and intelligent to the ridiculous and superfluous–barrage it daily through Internet and video channels. This generation must make daily personal decisions on what is credible. This drives home the point that thoughtful and accurate reporting on business and the economy can play a vital role.
• Stories have become global with any region capable of rocking the worldwide economy and markets. Opportunities in business journalism similarly stretch around the world. Major international news organizations that hire reporters have clout and are fond of bilingual reporters. Closer to home, local media now considers business to be an unquestioned lead item that attracts wide interest.
• The political debate is focused on the economy and other issues that involve money. Federal funding, Social Security, healthcare, trade, immigration and the environment all have dollar signs in their equations. History’s free-enterprise economist Adam Smith or government-interventionist John Keynes would fit right into today’s arguments in Washington.

These add up to a generation of journalists that doesn’t need to have the importance of business and the economy impressed upon it. The difference between today’s students and those of even five or 10 years ago is significant. They’ve lived in the maelstrom of business and the economy all their lives, many of their fellow students major in those subjects and business journalism is increasingly being offered in university curriculums.

That’s not to say that, like many other generations, it may miss its golden opportunity. Or that we as business journalists and educators might overlook our responsibility to keep this group’s interest alive in the name of good journalism and public service. Finding pertinent numbers, being a watchdog for the benefit of society and intelligently simplifying difficult concepts are demanding tasks.

I am, of course, biased because I spend a considerable amount of time with this generation as I teach courses in business journalism. I have also had opportunity to talk with many students in other countries. More than my parents’ generation, my own generation or those leading up to the current one, this generation is trying hard to understand the complex business and economic world it has inherited. I always learn something new from these young people taking a fresh view.

Whether it becomes the Greatest Generation of business journalists remains to be seen, but it is further along and better-equipped than its predecessors. Doing a better job of coverage will make a difference in its future and that of subsequent generations. Money isn’t everything, but it has powerful effect on the lives of everyone around the world. Assuming the responsibility of reporting on business and the economy accurately, creatively and relentlessly is a first step on the road to greatness.

The Particulars

Instructor: Diana B. Henriques,
longtime financial writer
for The New York Times and
author of the best-seller,
“The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff
and the Death of Trust”

Location: Online

When: Noon and 4 p.m. ET
Aug. 13

Register for this free,
hourlong Webinar.

Photo by flickr user ElvertBarnes

All that reporting, all those documents, all those late nights. But you finally got that story!

Now, how do you get people to read it? In today’s congested media marketplace, storytelling is more important than ever – but too often, it is the neglected element in business journalism.

Ask too many business reporters about storytelling, and they’ll say, “Oh, yeah – I have an anecdotal lede.” In fact, great stories are built from the ground up, beginning with reporting techniques that empower you when it’s time to write and moving on to eye-opening tools borrowed from the worlds of screenwriting and suspense fiction.

In this Webinar, you will learn these techniques to tell great stories from Diana B. Henriques, longtime financial writer for The New York Times and the author of the best-seller, “The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust.”

Author Diana B. Henriques signs copies of "The Wizard of Lies." Photo by Michel Duarte

Sign up for this free Webinar.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

How to:

• Gather the telling details while chasing the story.
• Deepen your story with universal characters from folklore and myths.
• Use techniques from screenwriting and potboilers to strengthen your writing.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Diana B. Henriques became a contributing writer to The New York Times in December 2011, after more than two decades at the paper.

As a senior financial writer at The Times, she specialized in investigative reporting on white-collar crime, market regulation and corporate governance. She turned her coverage of Bernie Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme into a best-selling book, “The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust.”

She was part of a reporting team that was named a Pulitzer finalist in 2003 for its coverage of the aftermath of the Enron scandals. She was also a member of a team that won a 1999 Gerald Loeb Award for covering the near-collapse of  the hedge fund, Long Term Capital Management.

She was a Pulitzer finalist in 2005 for exposing the exploitation of American soldiers by financial services companies. For that series, she also received the George Polk Award, Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and the Worth Bingham Prize.

FIRST-TIME ATTENDEES

Check out our Technology Help Page for connectivity requirements, helpful tips and an instructional video on how to access Reynolds Center Webinars.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

This free Webinar is sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. If you have any questions about the Webinar or the center, please email Executive Director Linda Austin or call 602-496-9187.

The Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism have been awarded by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism since 2007. They recognize the best in print and online investigative business journalism and are named after two-time Pulitzer Prize winners Don Barlett and Jim Steele.

Here are all of the previous winners:

2011

Gold: The Arizona Republic for “Public Pensions, A Soaring Burden” by Craig Harris. The series focused on questionable public-pension practices and their cost to taxpayers. The project, which involved 67 public-records requests, uncovered elected officials making more in retirement than when they were employed and pensions paid to convicted felons removed from office for official wrongdoing.

The winners of the 2011 Barlett & Steele Awards: (from left) Craig Harris, Michael J. Berens, Jim Steele, Raquel Rutledge and Rick Barrett.

Silver: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for “A Case of Shattered Trust” by Raquel Rutledge and Rick Barrett. The series revealed how a firm with a decade of serious regulatory violations of sanitary conditions was allowed to operate while the Food and Drug Administration did nothing. As a result of the stories, the FDA revealed the name of the bacterium that it found in the manufacturer’s contaminated alcohol wipes. Following a permanent federal injunction against the firm, the product is no longer manufactured.

Bronze: The Seattle Times for “Seniors for Sale” by Michael J. Berens. The series investigated the growing trend toward seniors being moved from nursing homes into less expensive “adult family homes.” The investigation uncovered more than 230 deaths that indicated neglect or abuse in these homes but were not reported to the state. (The bronze award was added in 2011.)

More on the 2011 winning articles.

Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism: 2011 Winners from Reynolds Center on Vimeo.

2010

Gold: Reuters for “Diagnosed with Breast Cancer, Dropped by Insurer” by Murray Waas, whose four-month investigation revealed that a giant health insurer had targeted policyholders recently diagnosed with breast cancer for aggressive investigations with the intent to cancel their policies. An exhaustive study of records, hearings and federal data, as well as dozens of interviews with experts, officials and patients led to the story.

Silver: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for “Side Effects: Money, Medicine and Patients” by John Fauber, whose stories uncovered conflicts of interest that can compromise a doctor’s judgment. An example was a surgeon receiving millions of dollars in royalties annually from a medical device company while serving as editor of a medical journal that published favorable research on the company’s projects.

More on the 2010 winning articles.

2010 Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Reporting from Reynolds Center on Vimeo.

From left: Don Barlett, Rob Barry, Matthew Haggman, Jim Steele and Andrew Leckey

2009

Gold: The Miami Herald for “Borrowers Betrayed” by Jack Dolan, Matthew Haggman and Rob Barry, whose nine-month investigation and resulting series uncovered poor oversight by Florida mortgage regulators that permitted thousands of individuals with criminal records to conduct business in the state’s home loan industry.

Silver: Bloomberg Markets for “AARP’s Stealth Fees” by Gary Cohn and Darrell Preston, who found through public documents and scores of interviews, that the world’s largest organization for seniors collects hundreds of millions of dollars annually from insurers who pay for AARP’s endorsement of their policies.

More on the 2009 winning articles.

2008

Gold: BusinessWeek for “Prisoners of Debt” by Robert Berner, Keith Epstein, Brian Grow and Geri Smith, who revealed how large financial firms regularly collaborate with doctors and hospitals to turn unpaid medical bills into high-interest consumer debt.

Silver: The Seattle Times for “The Favor Factory” by Hal Bernton and David Heath, who uncovered thousands of purchases that the U.S. Congress has forced the military to make in recent years, including a $4.5 million Navy vessel that sits unused by a Seattle pier.

More on the 2008 winning articles.

2007 Gold Award recipient Walt Bogdanich

2007

Gold: The New York Times for “A Toxic Pipeline” by Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker, who documented China’s role in supplying a counterfeit drug ingredient that killed at least 100 people in Panama and is suspected of killing thousands of others around the world.

Silver: The Baltimore Sun for “On Shaky Ground” by Fred Schulte and June Arney, who tracked how Baltimore’s arcane system of property fees initiated in Colonial times had evolved into a system of greed and lax oversight that preyed on the poor and elderly.

More on the 2007 winning articles.

Learn more on how to apply for the annual Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism.

The Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism are named for two-time Pulitzer Prize winners Don Barlett (left) and Jim Steele.

The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism celebrates the best in print and online investigative business journalism each year with the Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism.

Named for two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Don Barlett and Jim Steele, the awards were first given in 2007 and have featured a gold award of $5,000 and a silver prize of $2,000. Due to the growing number of exceptional submissions each year, a bronze award of $1,000 was added in 2011.

Entries for the 2012 award must have appeared in the year ending June 30, 2012. Each media outlet may submit no more than two entries. Submission deadline is Aug. 1, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. PT.

The Barlett and Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism from Reynolds Center on Vimeo.

QUALITIES OF WINNING ENTRIES

“Don and I have an informal motto: ‘Tell the reader something they don’t know,’” said Steele. “It sounds simple. Yet a lot of journalism is a rehash of what people already know.”

Judges will be looking for investigative enterprise, strong business theme, elegant writing style, clarity and impact.

The awards are conferred in January during Reynolds Business Journalism Week at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix.

Read more about previous winners.

Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism: 2011 Winners from Reynolds Center on Vimeo.

HOW TO APPLY BY AUG. 1, 2012

Applications will be accepted only online and from editors or the contest coordinator designated by your news organization. Applicants will need to provide the following on the Barlett & Steele Contest Entry Form (coming soon).

• Contact information for the editor submitting the entry.
• An editor’s letter outlining any (a) obstacles in reporting, (b) reforms or impact after publication and (c) corrections or challenges to accuracy. It can be submitted as a Word document (.doc) or an Adobe Acrobat PDF (.pdf) file.
• Up to four articles, submitted as either an active URL or as a Word document (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat PDF (.pdf). A sidebar counts as an article.

Applicants do not have to file all elements in one sitting, but all elements must be uploaded before the application is submitted for consideration. The deadline for submission is 11:59 p.m. PT on Aug. 1, 2012.

Questions? Email Andrew Leckey, Reynolds Center president, or call 602-496-9186.

Ilana Lowery

Ilana Lowery has been the editor of the Phoenix Business Journal since 2001. She started at the Journal as a reporter and projects editor in 1995, working her way up to become associate editor and then managing editor. Previously, she was an editor for Independent Newspapers Inc., a community newspaper chain based in Scottsdale.

Before moving to the Valley in 1989 from Chicago, Lowery served as a reporter and zone editor for Pulitzer Newspapers. From 1986 to 1988, she was a production assistant for the NBC-TV news affiliate in Chicago.

• Email Lowery or follow her on LinkedIn or on Twitter @ILowery

Kathy Tulumello

Kathy Tulumello has been business center director of The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com since 2005. She and her staff are responsible for the business news report of the Phoenix paper, its online sites and two business magazines, bizAZ and Arizona Woman. She also has been the sports editor and deputy managing editor/daily at The Republic.

Before that, Tulumello was sports editor, assistant news editor and assistant city editor at The Phoenix Gazette, which closed in 1997. She also worked as a reporter and assistant city editor at the now-defunct Memphis Press-Scimitar. She is a native of St. Louis and a journalism graduate of the University of Missouri.

• Email Tulumello or follow her on LinkedIn or Twitter: @azbizeditor

Gary Trennepohl

Gary Trennepohl became the first president of Oklahoma State University-Tulsa in 1999. Previously, he served as dean of the College of Business Administration at the OSU campus in Stillwater and held faculty and administrative appointments at Texas A&M University, the University of Missouri and Arizona State University. He has co-authored two college finance texts; contributed chapters for three editions of Options: Essential Concepts and Trading Strategies and The Encyclopedia of Investments; and authored or co-authored more than 30 professional journal articles.

He is active in many academic associations and served as president of the Financial Management Association International in 1994. Trennepohl also has served as a consultant to pension funds, corporations and college endowment funds and is a visiting faculty member for the Options Institute at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, presenting periodic seminars on futures and options strategies to institutional investment managers.

Since 1983, he also has conducted yearly seminars about financial analysis for journalists.

• Email Trennepohl or follow him on LinkedIn.

Mark Tatge

Mark W. Tatge is the Eugene S. Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. Before that, he was the E.W. Scripps Professor, Executive-in-Residence at Ohio University. Tatge was previously Forbes magazine’s Midwest bureau chief and senior editor in charge of Forbes’ Chicago operations, including content development for Forbes.com and the Forbes Video Network.

Tatge is a former staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal, an investigative reporter assigned to the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s statehouse bureau, and a staff writer for both The Dallas Morning News and The Denver Post. Tatge received the Chicago Headline Club’s Peter Lisagor Award and the Morton Margolin Prize for Distinguished Business Reporting. In Ohio, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists honored his public records work with the SPJ First Amendment Award. In Texas, the Associated Press Managing Editors named Tatge the best business writer in the state.

He is a past Kiplinger Fellow in Public Affairs Reporting at Ohio State University, where he completed his master’s degree in journalism. He also holds an MBA from Ohio University. In 2011, Tatge authored The New York Times Reader: Business and Economics, aimed at teaching students how to write financial news. He remains a contributing editor to Forbes on Fox and appears as a frequent financial commentator on CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, FOX and PBS stations.

• Email Tatge or follow him on LinkedIn.

Randall Smith,

Randall Smith was named Reynolds Endowed Chair in Business Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism in summer 2009. His 30-year career at The Kansas City Star began in 1979, where he worked on both the news and business sides. Smith started as a copy editor, rising to the positions of business editor and deputy managing editor, and lastly, to director of strategic development.

Smith is a former president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) and a recipient of its Distinguished Achievement Award. He played a major role in conceiving and raising money for Missouri’s SABEW-endowed chair in business journalism. He is the vice chair and first non-family member of the board of the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships.

The author of the book, A Kenyan Journey, Smith has lectured to classes in China, Africa and the United States. Active in diversity-hiring programs, he played a key role in Knight Ridder’s Rotating Internship Program, which placed more than 250 journalists in the newspaper chain’s newsrooms.

• Email Smith or follow him on LinkedIn.

Pam Luecke

Pam Luecke was the initial Reynolds Endowed Chair in Business Journalism, her success at Washington and Lee University paving the way for the naming of subsequent business journalism chairs. She assumed her position in summer 2001 and started the concentration in business journalism, bridging the college’s journalism department and the Williams School of Commerce.

Luecke had a 26-year career in daily newspapers and served last as editor and senior vice president of the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky. She also held various editing and reporting positions at the Hartford Courant, The (Louisville) Courier-Journal, and the Louisville Times. During her career, she was supervising editor of two projects recognized with Pulitzer Prizes.

She was also a Bagehot Fellow in Economics and Business Journalism at Columbia University. Luecke remains active in the American Society of Newspaper Editors and chaired its education committee in 2009. She also chaired the Accrediting Committee for the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.

• Email Luecke or follow her on Twitter @PamLuecke.