Welcome to the business beat. If you are new to business reporting – relax. Mark W. Tatge, an author, professor and investigative reporter who spent three decades as a journalist, is here to walk you through the basics.
I’ve been feeling remiss in not writing about the business implications of that the tragic and deadly fire that took place April 24 in a Bangladesh garment factory, and now unfortunately there are reports of another fatal fire at a sweater-making facility there as well. These workplace disasters have prompted a fair amount of discussion in the United [...]
Dozens of journalists teamed up to dig deep on 2.5 million files attached to more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts. The result: a groundbreaking investigation on offshore secrecy – “Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze” – from The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The series has already gained international attention, [...]
With stock market indices topping records and hitting psychological milestones like “Dow 15,000,” your audiences probably are wondering if it’s finally safe to peek at their 401(k) statements, and what else this bull run means for them. And more to the point, “Can it last?” As CNBC reports, major indices are up by double-digits so far [...]
If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, small-business coverage is the last refuge of cowardly, mediocre newspapers. Did I just write that? Oh, well. My Management Tourette Syndrome, suddenly blurting out the truth in meetings, was why I was repeatedly warned that I would never make admiral of the Cox, Hearst, Scripps-Howard, Gannett [...]
At this point in springtime, articles about residential real estate sales are logical and appreciated by readers. But about one-third of Americans don’t own, they rent, and they need information about the market they are competing in. So why not buck seasonal tradition with a spring report for tenants and landlords about how your region [...]
Even with the addition of a hedge fund manager meant to inject additional skepticism into Berkshire Hathaway‘s annual meeting, Warren E. Buffett managed to escape making big news here on Saturday. (New York Times) Before facing questions from a crowd of more than 30,000, billionaire investor Warren Buffett got a rock star’s treatment Saturday when he was mobbed [...]
Supreme Court deliberations can seem opaque and perplexing to reporters who haven’t had constitutional history classes, or spent time covering courts. But a basic understanding of how the court operates is a vital tool in a business journalist’s toolbox. Throughout its history, the Supreme Court has decided numerous cases that deal with business matters. In [...]
Elizabeth McGowan, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer won a Pulitzer Prize this year for their InsideClimate News series “The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of,” which looked the impact of a diluted bitumen or “dilbit” spill in Michigan. Elizabeth says she discovered the spill while looking at energy and environmental [...]
The 2013 edition of Fortune’s ranking of the top 500 U.S. companies hits the street today. And while the entries generally are clustered along either coast, most markets across the country boast some member of the list, which likely gives you an automatic instant story for your website. The metrics are fairly standard: Why they gained [...]
