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 training is free. The Reynolds Center is funded by a $3.16 million, three-year grant from the Las Vegas, Nevada-based Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

• Details on upcoming workshops and Webinars.
• Details on Strictly Financials Seminar.
• Details on Business Journalism Professors Seminar.

The center offers daylong workshops in cities across the country. Topics have included multimedia skills for business journalists, investigative business reporting, finding fresh angles on your local economy, and financial re-regulation. It also conducts Webinars throughout the year on topics such as how to be an entrepreneur as a business journalist, writing business news for the Web, and understanding financial statements.

Instructors at Reynolds Center training sessions include noted journalists and professors. Presenters have included Pulitzer winners, such as Jacqui Banaszynski, Knight Chair in editing at the Missouri School of Journalism; Gary Cohn, adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism; Buzz Bissinger, best-selling author of Friday Night Lights; and Jim Steele, contributing editor to Vanity Fair.

Other teachers have included James Gentry, journalism professor at the University of Kansas and winner of the Barry Sherman Teaching Award; Alec Klein, professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and former Washington Post reporter; and Ron Nixon, projects reporter for The New York Times.

Journalists who successfully complete three regional workshops or online seminars presented by the Reynolds Center are eligible to receive a “Circle of Achievement” award certificate. The free training is open to not only business reporters, but also reporters on other beats seeking to improve their skills in business coverage.

For its regional workshops, the Reynolds Center provides curriculum, handout materials, trainers and online registration. Journalism groups, media outlets and universities serve as hosts. If you are interested in hosting a Reynolds workshop or suggesting a workshop topic, please e-mail Executive Director Linda Austin or call her at 602-496-9187.

The Center is headquartered at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix. The Cronkite School, named for the long-time CBS news anchor, serves more than 1,200 undergraduate and master’s journalism students.

For more information about regional or online workshops, contact:

Linda Austin, executive director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, 602-496-9187 or linda.austin@businessjournalism.org.