Everybody needs a roof over their head – even local businesses. Jonathan Lansner, a veteran reporter at The Orange County Register, details how to cover the story of real estate locally and nationally.
Time flies on news-heavy weeks and the “ones that got away” pile of good stories to localize is growing at an annoying clip. (Among the missed opportunities, to my chagrin, was this Ragan’s PR Daily piece on tacky MLK Day marketing if you want to add it to next year’s tickler file.) So before the following are added [...]
This free workshop was originally held on Jan. 23, 2014 in Lexington, Ky.
Governments award millions of dollars in contracts and are often some of the largest employers in town. Yet journalists sometimes overlook the business stories in the workings of local and state government. The Watergate admonition to “follow the money” applies to investigations of government at all levels, down to the economic-development agency and library board.
Spring real estate season is going to be here in the blink of an eye, and if you haven’t done so yet, you might also kick off residential real estate coverage for 2014 with a personal finance primer about the new Ability to Pay /Qualified Mortgage rules that will affect borrowers and lenders. The new [...]
This week of limbo, as one year flickers out and another is about to dawn, is an annual opportunity to do some long-range planning and thinking about fresh angles for approaching your beat. It’s also a good time to seize ideas for projects or longitudinal stories and set them into motion. Otherwise all too soon, [...]
Retail stories this time of year tend to focus on items that fit under the tree, like electronics, apparel, jewelry, gift cards. But year-end sales of durable goods like cars, furniture and appliances — while not as glitzy as new iPads and cashmere scarves — can show a different side of your region’s economy. If you’re [...]
The last month of the year traditionally is a slow one for residential housing sales, as weather, holiday activity, travel and school breaks collide to make buying and selling houses a cumbersome task. But if you’re itching to do some sort of real estate story, why not find an angle in the booming multifamily market? Developers, [...]
With only a couple of days to go before even the most reticent of retailers – those who feel they must restrain the Christmas glee at least until after Halloween – unleash two months of merchant mania, it’s a good time to check in on the health of area shopping malls, strip centers and Main [...]
The drumbeat in residential real estate market news this year has largely been that of investors scooping up single-family homes on the cheap and turning them into investment rentals. It’s an interesting story with a lot of implications for property values, tax base, neighborhood character and other angles of interest to general readers. But this [...]
The federal government shutdown may be over, for the time being, but busineses, workers and consumers still are dealing with the after effects. And one area that ties together all three is residential real estate, which likely will feel the ripple effects of the interruption for some time to come. If you’re looking for follow-up [...]
