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Turn to us and we’ll find help.

We held a Daily Story-Idea Chat for several months and that worked pretty well, but ran its course. We are now researching other ways to bring business journalists together online.

NEED HELP? Just ask.

We are here to answer any questions you have about covering business. And if we don’t know the answer, we will find an editor or business reporter who does.

Got a question? Ask Linda Austin. Email: Linda.Austin@businessjournalism.org

Linda will get back to you.

And if you’d like us to add your name to the list of people who can help, please send me a note Robin Phillips.

She writes daily for BusinessJournalism.org specializing on best practices from business journalists around the United States.  I recently asked her about what she has learned by keeping an eye on reporters on the business beat. Follow Rosland’s daily posts.

Rosland Gammon

1.   You are always looking at ways other reporters find and tell stories.  What practices or patterns come up over and over? Or what practices do you think the best business journalists around the U.S. have in common?

Rosland Gammon: Attention to details. Reporters say stopping to see and record the scene have had tremendous impact on their stories. The best business journalists have great BS radars. Business reporters have to avoid the “court reporter” syndrome. Question everything and keep rephrasing until you get a good answer.

2.   What single best tip do you have for taking a story beyond the obvious?

Rosland Gammon: Don’t stop reporting until you’ve made one more call or interviewed one more person. By pushing ourselves to think about what other voices a story needs, we often find the missing piece of the story.

3.   How would you advise reporters to find good stories with fewer and fewer resources?

Rosland Gammon: Pay attention during your off hours. As a beat reporter, you’re technically never off the clock. Talk with other dog walkers, parents, Laundromat visitors, etc. These ears on the ground can clue you into trends or contacts. Also keep an eye on other papers across the country to see what’s going on.

4.  What do you wish you knew when you started in this business that you know now?

Rosland Gammon: I wish I had learned earlier in my career how to build sources. I always kept a very distinct line between my professional and social lives because I thought that’s how we were supposed to do it.  But having social connections with sources can help get you in the “club” and get information you wouldn’t otherwise get.

Social media sites have made sourcing easier. You can also force yourself to do a certain number of meet and greets each month. Keep in mind that these meetings don’t have to be fancy. If you’re grabbing a sandwich, invite the person along.

Melissa Preddy

1. You are always thinking about story ideas. You seem to have what Steve Padilla, an editor at the Los Angeles Times, calls a “story-hunting mindset.” What are some practical things you do to keep yourself on the hunt for stories?

Melissa Preddy: I think a good, creative reporter does enjoy the thrill of the hunt, as well as being part armchair sleuth, part amateur psychologist and a shameless snoop.  I never let an opportunity pass to ask “How’s business these days?” of everyone from the hair stylist to the dollar-store proprietor to the local bartender — you hear some fascinating details that way and patterns begin to emerge and develop into full-fledged trend stories.  Same with spot news — reporters who only deal with executives and PR staff are missing a big opportunity to tap the inside knowledge of rank-and-file workers.

After a while that little mental detective is on the job 24/7, wondering “Why is that local Realtor not giving out free pumpkins and calendars this year?” or “How come that Walgreen’s was replaced with a pawn shop?” or “Why is there wheat sprouting in that field where a new auto-parts plant was supposed to be built this year?”  Pull over, get out of the car and ask around.

2. What single best tip do you have for local business reporters in smaller communities who want to keep a watchful eye on local businesses?

Melissa Preddy: Breakfast meetings.  Lots of them.  The most tuned-in, prolific reporters I know make it a habit to have several informal meals or coffee hours every week with local entrepreneurs, lenders, community development leaders, CEOs and publicists.  Many times these people don’t realize that they have newsworthy information to share, or they wait too long to share it, or they’re too uptight during formal interviews.  Listen to their challenges and concerns in a relaxed setting, develop relationships off deadline, and you’ll be primed with news before you hit the office in the morning.

3.       How would you advise reporters to find good stories with fewer and fewer resources?

Melissa Preddy: To find trends and feature stories, automate as much as possible — make sure you’ve subscribed to RSS feeds, e-mail list-serves, Twitter accounts and other media for industry groups, publications and key companies on your beats. Run a blog on your news organization’s Web site and invite reader participation so your audience feels comfortable coming to you with news.  To break news, see above — you have to get out and talk with people every day.  It’s a time management challenge but most of us, if we’re honest, could chip out an hour or two a day if we really tried.

4.       What do you wish you knew when you started in this business that you know now?

Melissa Preddy: The great thing about journalism is that we’re always honing and refining and continuing to learn, and deadlines come around so often that there is little time to dwell on yesterday’s missteps.  But in hindsight I wish I had tackled certain beats more strategically, plotting stories and packages months in advance rather than a few weeks’ worth at any time — with exceptions for spot news, of course. Sit down with a calendar and really think about what’s coming up in the next year, what events you need to cover, where a project might be squeezed in.

Another canny trait I’ve admired in others is: Never stop writing.  I’ve taken time out for pure editing stints  and found it does tend to erase you from the radar screens of sources and industry colleagues, so I corrected that mistake as quickly as possible. The savvier editors always insisted on keeping a column, a blog, a standing feature — they kept their “brands” intact and have been much more nimble at finding new roles these past few years than those who work solely behind the scenes.  Always keep writing and publishing something.

Alicia Esposito, Telegram & Gazette

Andi Esposito, former business editor of the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Mass., talks about making the most of your resources, changes in the digital age and crafting coverage that speaks to readers in Central Massachusetts. Esposito told us about how essential it is to use every piece of the carcass even before the latest recession and thinning out of news staffs. She has since been named managing editor of local news.

1. How big is your staff and how do you make the best use of your resources to provide quality coverage?

I have three full-time business reporters-each a veteran in the newspaper industry-and a full-time copy editor who lays out the daily business section. We also use AP and Bloomberg copy and services. Because of its reach into news about our local, publicly-traded companies, we consider the Bloomberg terminal the equivalent of a half-time reporter. We cover more than 80 communities in a broad geographic swath of Central Massachusetts from Connecticut to the New Hampshire border. Worcester is about 45 miles from Boston, but our market does not include the Boston area. I deploy my staff according to the relative importance of the economic sectors they cover. But whenever I consider where, when and why to send them, I must affirm that their reporting will support our mission of covering local business news and people.

2. Are there any unique business beats in the area that you emphasize in order to give a distinct Worcester feel to the section?

The life sciences-and work related to this discipline, such as drug development and the medical device industry-stands out as a unique and important beat in our area, primarily because of its promise for the future (research and capital investment, entrepreneurial activity, new jobs, a heightened political profile for the city. We are home to Nobel Prize winner Dr. Craig Mello and more recently have learned that Worcester will be the location of a government-supported stem cell research institute. I would suggest, too, that our traditional manufacturing base is also unique in its ability to have survived and prospered because of its transformation into knowledge-based enterprises–idea-generating factories. We are also economically diverse with other important employment sectors in financial and business services, education, energy and technology, and we are home to really bright people with ideas that they have shown a strong willingness, historically, to patent and turn into businesses.

3. What types of business stories seem to resonate most with your readers?

Readers want to know more about the local businesses they work for, sell to, buy from and hold stock in. So, much of our coverage does focus on these companies, including a special section we published a year ago that examined the economic clout of the nearly 30 public companies with headquarters in Central Massachusetts. We also have a plethora of private, family businesses that are truly job-generating engines and important supporters of the region’s human fabric. But as the newspaper industry changes, as newspaper circulation declines and we all wrestle with what readers want and have the time and desire to seek, what we cover also will change. We know we have carried fewer consumer business stories than we probably should be offering. We know people are looking for advice. We know they have competing sources of information at hand and less time to seek information from those many sources. One thing we hope to pursue this year are the story possibilities that may unfold by going down the “Newspaper Next” path and by trying to learn how business news fits into the readers’ “jobs to be done.” (more on Newspaper Next)

4. How have you seen business and business coverage change? And how is the Web affecting what you do?

I have been business editor at the Telegram & Gazette since about 1985, and so, yes, I have seen coverage change. We have fewer business news staff members and a smaller news hole. We used to carry a full section of stock, mutual and money market funds. Those offerings have been trimmed radically. Our writing, I believe, has become much better, stronger and more appealing to the traditional business reader. Yet at the same time I believe we have successfully wooed the general reader with some unique offerings, such as a series we did called “Men Not Working” and our “On the Job” feature. It’s a weekly Q&A with a regular person–not a CEO–about his or her job. We’ve had this feature for nearly three years, and people consistently tell us how much they like it. We post breaking business news on our Web site, telegram.com, and for years have sent an electronic newsletter, Business@Noon, to subscribers Monday through Friday. It’s also posted on our Web site. It is likely we will offer more coverage on the Web, but whether this will mirror our print reports or be something entirely different must be explored.

5. What advice would you give to other business editors?

Don’t be afraid to try new approaches, new ideas for coverage (both subject matter and medium). Change doesn’t have to be perfect the first time. Newspapers are great product vehicles because they are “new” everyday. If something doesn’t work, we can abandon it or do it differently. For those who lead their sections, try to stay enthusiastic, upbeat and creative amid tough times and often depressing industry news. Make sure your staff stays focused on the mission, but give them the tools to do their jobs. That means being creative about development opportunities (try to tap into everything that is free or inexpensive and the Donald W. Reynolds National Center has been particularly helpful in this arena). Be demanding and set high standards for yourself and others, but don’t forget praise and a kind word when they are deserved. Finally, we’ve got to learn more about our consumers and how we can serve them better: That is the biggest challenge ahead. If we don’t get that right, we won’t have a second chance.

Two years on, we asked Esposito this follow-up question:
6. What is the biggest change (staffing, space in the paper, moving your section online or anything else) to the way you cover business since we talked last?

Since we last talked, I have become managing editor and we no longer have a business editor. Business news coverage has transitioned to “Money,” which is supposed to be more consumer-oriented than what we used to do. We still wrestle with what that means to daily reporting and writing. Additionally, we have two business reporters now instead of three, but they also have general news reporting responsibilities. At the same time, we have tried to encourage more GA reporters to tackle business stories. That has been challenging but has yielded some interesting angles. Finally, our pull-out, standalone Business section has disappeared. Our new Money section is part of the local news section, though luckily we have retained two full pages of Money coverage and color capability for centerpiece stories, typically local Money features. Given the difficult environment, I am encouraged that we do cover the key sectors of our local economy and that our skilled former business reporters use their talents well in other reporting sectors while still contributing to smaller-scale business coverage. Our readers still benefit!

Alec Klein

Alec Klein, a Medill faculty member at Northwestern University, is an award-winning investigative business journalist and bestselling author.

He is a senior presenter at Reynolds Center workshops. For two decades, Klein worked as a newspaper reporter, most recently as an investigative business reporter at The Washington Post for the past eight years. He previously worked at The Wall Street Journal, The Baltimore Sun and The Virginian-Pilot.

We turned the tables and put five questions to him.

1. How do you find your best story ideas?

No magic bullet exists. In one case, an anonymous tip led me on a path to a yearlong investigation that revealed how AOL inflated its advertising revenue at a critical time before and after its merger with Time Warner, the largest takeover in U.S. history. In another investigation, an editor asked me to look into credit rating companies, which resulted in a series that showed how they dominate an important part of global finance with little oversight or accountability, how the rating system is subject to manipulation and conflicts of interest, and how the credit raters use strong-arm tactics to generate business. And in my last Washington Post investigation, a source over lunch suggested that I take a look at the little-known but widespread practice of reusing single-use medical devices in the United States. The stories documented patient injuries and device malfunctions and showed how the industry has eluded comprehensive oversight and is comprised of several entrepreneurs who have run afoul of federal authorities.

2. What interviewing techniques do you use to get sources to open up and trust you?

It comes down to this: Being honest and compassionate and patient. Sources, who are jeopardizing their livelihood — if not more — need to know that you will protect them, that you are fair and that you will do the right thing. And that level of trust takes time.

3. What has been your toughest story to date and how did you tackle it?

In my AOL investigation, the world’s largest media company hired a powerful law firm in an attempt to kill my Washington Post stories before publication. In another investigation, I have been followed. And then there have been the regular investigative reporting challenges: spinning your wheels for days without making any ostensible progress; plowing through thousands of complex documents; knocking on doors in the hopes of persuading someone who doesn’t want to talk to you to, well, talk to you. There’s only one way to tackle these challenges: Be persistent. But then again, that’s part of the fun of investigative reporting.

4. Is there one trait you’ve noticed that is common to the best investigative reporters?

It may seem counterintuitive, but in my experience, the best at the craft aren’t in-your-face investigative reporters; they’re nice. But these reporters also are pleasantly dogged — and I’m thinking of great investigative reporters like Gary Cohn of the Los Angeles Times and Dan Golden of The Wall Street Journal and great investigative editors, such as Larry Roberts of The Washington Post.

5. Many of those reading this are reporters doing daily coverage. How can they start to expand into investigative reporting as well?

Two ways: Make time — on weekends, after hours and on vacations. That’s what I did in my early days as a reporter on a beat looking for time to investigate a significant subject. Or develop a theme of coverage, a pointed question, or a specific target, and then spend the year writing about it, chipping away at it until what emerges is an investigation based on a handful of interconnected stories arising from the beat.

Kim Quillen, Times-Picayune

Dealing with disaster is an understatement for the staff of The Times-Picayune. Business editor Kim Quillen, who spends much of her time answering readers’ post-Katrina questions, fielding five questions from us a couple of years after the floods.

1. Two years after Hurricane Katrina, does that calamity have a lingering effect?

Katrina continues to shape our coverage. Because the storm had major implications for some of our key industries, most of the stories we write today still deal in some way with the aftermath of the storm and the rebuilding effort. Our tourism industry, for example, was crippled by the storm. And our port is struggling to reverse a decline in cargo that was only made worse by Katrina. The local energy sector, meanwhile, is dealing with soaring insurance premiums and new standards implemented by the federal government in Katrina’s wake. Many of our key industries are still grappling with storm-related issues, and our coverage reflects that.

The size of our section is smaller than it was before Katrina. We significantly reduced the size of our stock listings immediately after the storm. The downsizing of our stock listing became permanent, and the overall size of our section shrank as a result.

2. Does your online business coverage now play a larger role than it did pre-Katrina? Has this changed how you report stories?

Immediately after Katrina, with many of our readers evacuated beyond the reaches of our circulation, The Times-Picayune became much more aggressive about posting news online. Our emphasis on online news posts continues today, not just because of the storm, but because the immediacy helps us stay competitive in what is becoming a 24-hour news cycle.

Our growing online presence has not necessarily changed how we report stories, but it’s changed the timing with which we deliver them. As soon as they’ve nailed their stories down, reporters are now posting the news online in updates that are often just a couple of paragraphs long. They then write a full-length version for publication in the next day’s paper. We’ve made a special effort to get news that breaks early in the day — like earnings reports — online quickly.

3. What are some of the most popular business beats in New Orleans today?

Insurance has become a major business beat post-Katrina because many of our readers are still working through their storm damage claims. In fact insurance, something we wrote about only occasionally before Katrina, is now a full-time beat. News on other business beats has been greatly impacted by the storm as well. Our beats cover tourism and gaming, the local port, real estate, energy and banking.

4. What are the biggest challenges your business section faces?

Without a doubt, our biggest challenge is juggling staff resources as we try to cover the aftermath of a major hurricane. We are in a very rich news environment, and there are almost more stories than we can currently chase.

We’re trying to hit as many of them as we can while still setting aside time for reporters to delve into the bigger — and more time-consuming — project-type stories that can run in our Sunday section or on A-1.

5. Has economic coverage taken on more importance now? Do you cover the local economy differently?

Hurricane Katrina has both focused our economic coverage and established a benchmark against which we measure progress. In terms of focus, we’ve placed greater emphasis on stories that are emblematic of the health and direction of the local economy. Over the past year, we’ve done trend stories on everything from Easter candy sales to business tax payments and bank deposits. With each of those stories, we’ve asked the same basic question: What does this trend signal about the comeback of the local economy?

In terms of benchmarking, we now use Katrina as an economic measuring point. In our reports, we now look at how the economy is doing presently compared to where it was pre-Katrina. We also look at how the economy has progressed after hitting a low point during the month after the storm.

Southwestern Energy

Laura Goldberg, Houston Chronicle

5 Questions with Laura Goldberg, business editor of the Houston Chronicle.

Goldberg talks about her target audience, the challenges of keeping up with technology and key topics her reporters are covering.

1. When you became business editor, did anything surprise you about the job?

There weren’t many big surprises. If anything, just the volume of e-mail pitches I get every day – most of which have nothing to do with Houston or business trends in Houston.

2. What are some unique traits of covering the Houston business scene? Are there sacred cows? Hot coverage areas?

No sacred cows here. Given the size of the energy-related workforce in Houston, we devote a lot of coverage to the industry. We have a team of three energy writers in Houston and our business writer in (Washington) DC spends a lot of his time on energy policy. We’re covering the nation’s housing woes different from a lot of other markets. While we are seeing a big increase in foreclosures, we haven’t seen the scope of troubles other areas have. We also do a fair bit on Latin American trade.

3. What types of business stories seem to resonate with your readers?

• Energy stories, including industry news, trends and consumer stories.
• Real estate stories that look at the housing market and those that highlight building sales and new development.
• Consumer stories, including those related to cable and internet companies and the health industry.
• Legal news related to Enron, including the government’s ongoing fight to seize Linda Lay’s assets and Jeff Skilling’s appeal.

4. What role does the Web play?

We’re writing for the Web all day. Reporters file stories as news happens and add updates during the day. We’re also doing blogs. The live blog we did of the Lay-Skilling trial was popular with readers. A couple of our business reporters shoot video themselves. Other times, we work with staff videographers or photographers to get video. I have one assistant editor who spends a big chunk of his time on Web business news, posting stories and making sure we’re thinking of how to present items on the Web.

5. What advice do you have for other business editors? Any tips on motivating staff?

This sounds pretty obvious: Keep thinking of new ways to connect with and engage readers online and in print. We’re writing for the Web first, but we still have thousands and thousands of readers – and advertisers who follow them – paying for our print product. I try to motivate my staff by pushing them to break news, come up with great enterprise and write excellent headlines. And when they do, I let them know they’ve done a good job.

Follow Laura on Twitter @LauraGoldbergHC