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 Particulars

Instructor: Tami Luhby,
senior writer, CNNMoney

Location: Online

When: Noon or 4 p.m. ET
July 10

Register for this free,
one-hour Webinar.

Photo by flickr user Saad.Akhtar

Four years into producing stories on unemployment woes, you may be looking for new angles. The good news is that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has a treasure trove of data that offer fresh insights on your local jobs market.

In this hourlong, live session you’ll learn where to find the local statistics to substantiate the trend stories you are seeing  — and find new ones. The Webinar will feature examples of how your colleagues have used BLS data to produce enterprising local stories.

Register for this free Webinar.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

You will learn how to use BLS numbers to find and analyze the following data:

• Unemployment: Dig deeper into the national unemployment figures and find stats on the jobless by age, industry, race and education level.
• Employment sectors: How many people work in leisure/hospitality or finance or in your area, and how has that changed over the past year, five years or 10 years?
• Wages: Find fun facts such as how average weekly wages have changed in your state or metro area. You can search for all employees or specific sectors.
• Hot jobs: What professions are the fastest-growing nationally? How many carpenter jobs will exist in 2018? How many registered nurses?
• Employment population ratio, percentage of population in the workforce: Find out why these two measures can be more telling than just the unemployment rate alone.

Note: You don’t need to have a familiarity with Excel spreadsheets to benefit from this training. However, much BLS data can be downloaded and analyzed in Excel.

Tami Luhby

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Tami Luhby is a senior writer at CNNMoney.com, where she covers the economy. Previously, she covered personal finance for Newsday. Before joining Newsday, she worked at Crain’s New York Business and American Banker. Luhby also teaches at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, from which she graduated in 1997.

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.

David Brancaccio, PBS.

We’ll chat live with David Brancaccio, a special correspondent for Marketplace’s Economy 4.0 and host of the Marketplace Index, on Tuesday, Jan. 31, from 11:30 a.m-12:15 p.m. ET.

Brancaccio, a broadcaster for 33 years, was previously the anchor of public television’s NOW, an award-winning newsmagazine of investigative reporting and in-depth interviews. He also hosted California Connected.

Before joining PBS, Brancaccio was a Marketplace’s European correspondent based in London. He hosted the public radio program from 1993 to 2003. Among his beats: politics, human rights, national security, the environment, health care, and science policy.

From his Marketplace biography:

“Brancaccio specializes in telling stories important to our economy and our democracy through the eyes of the real people who live in the cross hairs of crucial issues. His accessible yet authoritative approach to investigative reporting and in-depth interviewing earned his work the highest honors in broadcast journalism, including the Peabody, the Columbia-duPont, the Emmy, and the Walter Cronkite awards.

A new version of Brancaccio’s public television special about Main Street as an engine of economic innovation called “Fixing the Future” will soon be a feature-length documentary.  He is author of a book about Americans applying their personal values to their money, entitled “Squandering Aimlessly.”

Brancaccio has a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and a master’s degree in journalism from Stanford University.  He has appeared on CNBC, MSNBC, and BBC television and his newspaper work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the BaltimoreSun, and Britain’s The Guardian.”

Tuesday’s chat will be on CoverItLive.  You can register below and we’ll send you a reminder as the time nears.

Come back on Tuesday with questions for Brancaccio.

The Particulars

When: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 26

Where: The Chambers,
Brown-Lupton University Union,
Texas Christian University
Schieffer School of Journalism,
2901 Stadium Drive,
Fort Worth, Texas 76109

Instructors: Linda Austin,
executive director of the
Donald W. Reynolds National
Center for Business Journalism;
Carlie Kollath, business reporter,
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal;
Chris Roush, business journalism
professor at the University of
North Carolina; Doug Swanson,
investigative projects editor
for The Dallas Morning News;
Tommy Thomason, director of TCU’s
Texas Center for Community
Journalism

Co-sponsors: TCU’s Texas Center for
Community Journalism,
Texas Press Association

Hotels: Please see this list of nearby
hotels, including some that offer
discounts to TCU-affiliated guests.

Directions

Register for this free workshop.

“What isn’t business that we cover?” — Laurie Ezzell Brown, editor of The Canadian Record in Canadian, Texas

Photo by Flickr user Jo Naylor

That’s the thinking behind this free workshop designed to help community journalists cover local business better. Whether it’s finding stories in the municipal budget, the local economic-development agency or area small businesses, business and the economy are big news on Main Street, as well as Wall Street.

Geared to the needs of generalists on small staffs, this daylong training will arm you with resources, tips and ideas to bring more meaningful coverage of this important topic to your community.

The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism is presenting this free workshop, which is hosted by the Texas Center for Community Journalism at Texas Christian University’s Schieffer School of Journalism. The Reynolds Center is offering a similar workshop on April 13, hosted by the University of Kentucky’s Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

Sign up for this free workshop on April 26.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• How to find good stories in the business of government, including budgets and contracts,
• How to cover economic-development agencies at the state and local levels,
• How to find public information on private companies,
• How to find stories in publicly available databases, such as incorporation records and real estate transactions,
• How to find stories in small businesses, including 15 questions to ask for small-business profiles, and
• How to localize national and international stories for your audience.

YOUR INSTRUCTORS

Linda Austin

Linda Austin is the executive director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. A former editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader and reporter and editor at the Dallas Times Herald, she is also a former business editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Carlie Kollath

Carlie Kollath has been a business reporter at the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo, Miss., since 2007. She fell in love with journalism in high school and discovered business journalism while working for two trade publications in New York after graduating from the University of Mississippi.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Scholar in business journalism and the founding director of the Carolina Business News Initiative at the University of North Carolina. He was named Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Teacher of the Year in 2009 and the North Carolina Professor of the Year in 2010. He is the author of Show Me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication and co-author of The Financial Writer’s Stylebook: 1,100 Business Terms Defined and Rated.

Doug Swanson is the investigative projects editor at The Dallas Morning News. Before that, he was a projects reporter specializing in coverage of troubled state agencies and the financial misdeeds of state contractors. He has written five crime novels and is at work on a biography of Benny Binion, who started the World Series of Poker. Swanson is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and was a John S. Knight Fellow in Journalism at Stanford University.

Doug Swanson

Tommy Thomason is the founding director of Texas Christian University’s Center for Community Journalism. He was also the founding director of TCU’s Schieffer School of Journalism, which he led until starting the center in 2009. He has taught journalism at five universities and has been at TCU since 1984.

AGENDA: Uncovering the Best Local Business Stories

• 8:30-9 a.m. Registration and continental breakfast
• 9-9:20 a.m.  Welcome, introductions and why cover local business  –  Linda Austin
• 9:20-10:50 a.m. The Business of Government: Uncovering good stories in local government budgets, taxes and contracts  — Doug Swanson
  
• 10:50-11 a.m. Break
• 11 a.m.-noon Covering government incentives for economic development — Swanson
  

  Tommy Thomason

• Noon-1 p.m. What’s worked for you in covering local business?  A conversation over a boxed lunch (provided) on what’s worked for you. — Carlie Kollath and Tommy Thomason
• 1-2 p.m.  Uncovering public information on private companies — Chris Roush
  
• 2-3 p.m. Uncovering stories in data — Example: accessing and presenting incorporations data on your website — Roush 
• 3-3:15 p.m. Break
• 3:15-4 p.m. Uncovering stories in small businesses — 15 smart questions to ask for small-business profiles — Roush
• 4-5 p.m.  Localizing national/international business stories for your audience — Austin

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Please do not register unless you are sincere about participating. Signing up and not participating deprives someone else of the opportunity.

Those who successfully complete three regional workshops or online seminars presented by the Reynolds Center are eligible to receive a “Circle of Achievement” certificate.

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

The Particulars

When: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 13

Where: Room 248, Gatton
College of Business and Economics,
550 S. Limestone St.,
University of Kentucky,
Lexington, Ky. 40506

Instructors: Linda Austin,
executive director of the
Donald W. Reynolds National
Center for Business Journalism;
John Cheves, reporter,
Lexington Herald-Leader;
Carlie Kollath, business
reporter, Northeast Mississippi
Daily Journal; Chris Roush,
business journalism
professor at the
University of North Carolina.

Host: UK’s Institute for
Rural Journalism and
Community Issues

Partners: Hoosier State
Press Association, Kentucky Press
Association, Ohio Newspaper
Association

Nearby hotels:

SpringHill Suites by Marriott
Holiday Inn Express
University Inn
Crowne Plaza

Parking:
Available in paid garage
across Limestone Street
from Gatton College,
accessible by elevated walkway.

Register for this
free workshop.

Photo by Flickr user Jo Naylor

Whether it’s finding stories in the municipal budget, the local economic-development agency or area small businesses, business and the economy are big news on Main Street, as well as Wall Street.

Geared to the needs of generalists on small staffs, this daylong training will arm community journalists with resources, tips and ideas to bring more meaningful coverage of this important topic to their towns. As Laurie Ezzell Brown, editor of The Canadian Record in Canadian, Texas, said, “What isn’t business that we cover?”

The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism is presenting this free workshop, which is hosted by UK’s Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. The Reynolds Center is offering a similar workshop on April 26, hosted by the Texas Center for Community Journalism at Texas Christian University’s Schieffer School of Journalism in Fort Worth.

Sign up for this free workshop on April 13.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• How to find good stories in the business of government, including budgets and contracts,
• How to cover economic-development agencies at the state and local levels,
• How to find public information on private companies,
• How to find stories in publicly available databases, such as incorporation records and real estate transactions,
• How to find stories in small businesses, including 15 questions to ask for small-business profiles, and
• How to localize national and international stories for your audience.

YOUR INSTRUCTORS

Linda Austin

Linda Austin is the executive director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. A former editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader and reporter and editor at the Dallas Times Herald, she is also a former business editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Carlie Kollath

Carlie Kollath has been a business reporter at the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo, Miss., since 2007. She fell in love with journalism in high school and discovered business journalism while working for two trade publications in New York after graduating from the University of Mississippi.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Scholar in business journalism and the founding director of the Carolina Business News Initiative at the University of North Carolina. He was named Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Teacher of the Year in 2009 and the North Carolina Professor of the Year in 2010. He is the author of Show Me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication and co-author of The Financial Writer’s Stylebook: 1,100 Business Terms Defined and Rated.

John Cheves

John Cheves is an investigative reporter at the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, with a focus on government watchdog stories that track how taxpayer money is spent. He previously worked in the Herald-Leader’s Washington bureau and its statehouse bureau. His projects include a nationally published 2006 series, “The McConnell Machine,” examining $220 million in political donations collected by U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and the favors that McConnell did for his biggest donors. Cheves is a 1993 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

AGENDA: Uncovering the Best Local Business Stories

• 8:30-9 a.m. Registration and continental breakfast
• 9-9:20 a.m.  Welcome, introductions and why cover local business  –  Linda Austin
• 9:20-10:50 a.m. The Business of Government: Uncovering good stories in local government budgets, taxes and contracts  — John Cheves
  
• 10:50-11 a.m. Break
• 11 a.m.-noon Covering government incentives for economic development — Cheves
• Noon-1 p.m. What’s worked for you in covering local business?  A conversation over a boxed lunch (provided) on what’s worked for you. — Carlie Kollath
  
• 1-2 p.m.  Uncovering public information on private companies — Chris Roush
  
• 2-3 p.m. Uncovering stories in data — Example: accessing and presenting incorporations data on your website — Roush 
• 3-3:15 p.m. Break
• 3:15-4 p.m. Uncovering stories in small businesses — 15 smart questions to ask for small-business profiles — Roush
• 4-5 p.m.  Localizing national/international business stories for your audience — Austin

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Please do not register unless you are sincere about participating. Signing up and not participating deprives someone else of the opportunity.

Those who successfully complete three regional workshops or online seminars presented by the Reynolds Center are eligible to receive a “Circle of Achievement” certificate.

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

THE PARTICULARS

When: Feb. 28
Noon or 4 p.m. ET

Where: Online

Instructor: Robin J Phillips,
Web managing editor,
BusinessJournalism.org

Register for this free Webinar.

Whether it’s confirming a scoop from a company or chasing down a rumor, having the right source makes all the difference.  As LinkedIn membership grows (and it hit 120 million in August 2011), the business-related social networking site becomes more and more useful to business journalists.

Robin J Phillips, the Reynolds Center’s Web managing editor and social media manager, will take you on an hourlong tour around LinkedIn. Sign up for this free Webinar.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• How to use the advanced search to find the right contact at a company.
• Ways to keep an up-to-date and robust profile, allowing sources come to you.
• Ways to use LinkedIn Answers to spot trends or browse topics in your search for fresh story ideas.
• Tips on using LinkedIn to gather background information on people or companies ahead of an interview.

Robin J. Phillips, Reynolds Center

We’ll also talk about the differences between unpaid and upgraded memberships on the site and the advantages of joining the 4,400-strong LinkedIn for Journalists group on the site.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Robin J. Phillips became the Reynolds Center’s Web managing editor in 2009, after working as online community manager for azcentral.com, the website of The Arizona Republic in Phoenix. She has also served as deputy business editor at The Republic and Newsday, as well as editor for BusinessWeek Online’s small-business channel. She manages social media for the center and has instructed journalists on the use of social media as a reporting tool. In February 2011, she taught Webinars called Social Media 101, 202 and 303 for journalists; you can access those previous Webinars as self-guided training.

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

Please do not register unless you are sincere about participating. Space is limited, and signing up and not participating deprives someone else of the opportunity.

Those who successfully complete three regional workshops or online seminars presented by the Reynolds Center are eligible to receive a “Circle of Achievement” certificate.

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

THE PARTICULARS

When: March 27-28
Noon or 4 p.m. ET

Where: Online

Instructors: Yamil Berard of the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram; Lynn Hume of The Bond Buyer;
Ernesto Lanza and Justin Pica of the
Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board

Register for this free Webinar.

You may know EDGAR, the online database of public companies’ filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Now, it’s time to get to know EMMA, the online database for municipal bonds. To do so, attend this free Webinar of one hour each on March 27 and 28.

EMMA is to municipal bonds what EDGAR is to stocks. EMMA stands for Electronic Municipal Market Access. Launched by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) in 2008, it provides free access to a treasure trove of information about the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market and individual bond issues, including their credit ratings and pricing. The disclosure documents filed by the local governments that issue munis can contain newsworthy information on the economic health of your region.

“The documents can contain, for example, current and projected employment numbers, tax revenues and other revenue sources, economic forecasts and other information that can help reporters understand the local economy, development and even political issues,” the MSRB says.

With Jefferson County, Ala., filing the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history in November 2011 and Harrisburg, Pa., attempting to join it, now is the time to bone up on the nation’s repository for information on 1.5 million municipal bonds.

Justin Pica

Here are just some of the ways journalists can use EMMA, according to the MSRB:

• “State and Local Government Reporters - Review continuing disclosures about the financial or operating condition of state and local municipal bond issuers, including public utilities and school districts. In addition, the MSRB makes disclosures of political contributions by municipal bond dealers to municipal issuer officials available on the MSRB’s main website.  Under MSRB rules, municipal bond dealers could be banned from business with issuers based on political contributions to issuer officials.
• Utilities Reporters - Review disclosures and trade information for local utility bond issues.
• Education Reporters - Find disclosures and other information for school bond issues.
• Personal Finance Reporters – Learn about investing in municipal bonds and 529 college savings plans in EMMA’s Education Center; view documents associated with municipal securities and see real-time trade price data to compare bonds
• Financial Reporters – Access real-time trade data, daily and annual market statistics and information about auction-rate securities and variable-rate demand obligations.”

Join experts on EMMA from the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board and two journalists who have used EMMA extensively to learn how to incorporate this valuable database into your reporting.

Register for this free Webinar.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Yamil Berard

• What is EMMA and how can it serve as a tool for journalists
• What information on EMMA can help you report stories
• How to find that information
• How to track information on a particular community or project

AGENDA

March 27: What Information Is on EMMA, and How Do I Find It? — Ernesto Lanza and Justin Pica

March 28: How I Used EMMA to Get the Story — Yamil Berard and Lynn Hume

YOUR INSTRUCTORS

• Ernesto Lanza is the deputy executive director and chief legal officer of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). He led the design, development and initial launch of EMMA. He holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Ernesto Lanza

• Justin Pica  is director of product management for the MSRB. He oversees enhancements to EMMA.  He has an MBA from George Washington University.
• Yamil Berard is an investigative reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She wrote a four-part series that showed her home county was among the nation’s leaders in municipal-bond defaults because of its authorization of risky conduit bonds. She holds a bachelor’s degree in print journalism with a minor in business administration from the University of Southern California.
• Lynn Hume is the Washington bureau chief for The Bond Buyer, the daily newspaper of public finance. Here is one of her favorite stories researched on EMMA: Florida Community District Has a Question for IRS (PDF).

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

Please do not register unless you are sincere about participating. Space is limited, and signing up and not participating deprives someone else of the opportunity.

Those who successfully complete three regional workshops or online seminars presented by the Reynolds Center are eligible to receive a “Circle of Achievement” certificate.

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

Photo by Flickr user dok1.

The free workshop, “Digital Efficiency for Business Journalists – 36 Tips to Tame Info Overload,” was originally held at City University New York (CUNY) Graduate School of Journalism on Oct. 13. This training was hosted by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) and preceded their Fall Conference.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• How to manage email by batching, filtering and practicing “Inbox Zero.”
• How to efficiently organize and back up documents.
• How to streamline social media.
• How to make the most of calendars, to-do lists and voicemail.
• How to stay sane amidst the flood of digital information.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Jeremy Caplan is the director of education for the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a Ford Fellow in Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Poynter Institute.

Caplan was a Wiegers Fellow at Columbia Business School, where he completed his MBA, and a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at the Columbia Journalism School, where he earned an M.S. in Journalism.

SELF-GUIDED LESSON

Take a look through the workshop session recording and resources below. At your own pace, you can walk through the self-guided lesson on the basics of digital efficiency and strategies for data management.

The Particulars

When: June 26-28
One hour a day at noon or 4 p.m. ET

Where:
Online

Instructor:
Marilyn Geewax,
senior business editor for
NPR’s National Desk

Register here for this
free Webinar.

The economy is arguably the biggest story on the planet. But perhaps you missed Economics 101 when you were in school or would like to brush up on your understanding of basic economic principles.

In this free Webinar June 26-28, Marilyn Geewax, senior business editor for NPR’s National Desk, will demystify economics for business journalists. If you’ve heard her on NPR, you know Geewax can break down complicated economic concepts and make them understandable in her chatty, conversational style.

In just one hour on each of three days with her, you will get a grounding in how the overall economy works, plus specific insights into the employment and housing markets. And beyond the basics, you’ll see how to apply what you’ve learned to finding fresh story ideas on the economy in your local area. Sign up here for this free, interactive Webinar.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• What is a recession? What constitutes a recovery? How can you identify what’s happening in your area?
• What do the unemployment rate and first-time jobless claims mean? How many jobs have we lost in the last four years, and what will it take to recover those jobs? What are the local stories to be done on the labor market?
• What forces led to the recent wave of housing foreclosures? When will the residential real estate market start to recover? How can you get good data on what’s happening in your area?

AGENDA: Economics 101

June 26: It’s the economy, stupid - What will it take for us to get out of this economic slump? How can you tell whether your local economy is recovering; what are the signs to track?

June 27: What will it take for jobs to come back - How do you find fresh stories in the drumbeat of stats about joblessness in your area?

June 28: Foreclosures and falling housing prices – What needs to happen for the housing market to recover? What are the fresh local angles to pursue now – four years after the mortgage meltdown?

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Marilyn Geewax

Marilyn Geewax is the senior business editor for NPR’s National Desk. She was the national economics correspondent for Cox Newspapers’ Washington Bureau. Before coming to Washington in 1999, she worked for the Cox flagship paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, first as a business reporter and then as a columnist and editorial board member.

Geewax earned a master’s degree at Georgetown University, where she focused on international economic affairs. She also studied economics and international relations at Harvard as a Nieman Fellow. She was also a Davenport Fellow at the University of Missouri, and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio State University.

From 2001 to 2006, Geewax taught a business journalism class as an adjunct professor at George Washington University.

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 at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

The Reynolds Center is funded by a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation in Las Vegas. Besides its free regional workshops and online training, the center runs BusinessJournalism.org, offering daily tips, training and resources for those who want to do a better job of covering business.

Those who successfully complete three regional workshops or Webinars presented by the Reynolds Center are eligible to receive a “Circle of Achievement” award certificate. If you have any questions about the Webinar or the center, please email Executive Director Linda Austin or call 602-496-9187.

The Particulars

When: Jan. 5, 2012
12:45-5 p.m.

Where: Pulliam Room, 10th floor
Republic Media building
200 E. Van Buren St.
Phoenix, Ariz.

Instructor: Jodi Schneider,
tax-policy editor for
Bloomberg News

Hosts:
The Arizona Republic,
Arizona Newspapers Association

Hotel:
Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel
340 N. 3rd St.
Phoenix, Ariz.

Please reserve your room via Reynolds
Center Business Manager Dave Hill
by Dec. 9 to get a discounted rate.

Registration is now closed.

Private companies can be frustrating to cover. They aren’t required to publicly report their revenues and profits, and they may feel less obligated to return a reporter’s phone call than their publicly traded counterparts.

Yet, there are many more private companies than public ones, and they are often among the largest or most interesting businesses in town. From start-ups to mom-and-pops to the local cable provider in Phoenix (Cox Communications), to manufacturers and real estate development LLCs — private companies make up a huge part of your local business community and merit more coverage and scrutiny.

Arm yourself with the knowledge and tools to find public information on private companies and to tell their stories better by attending a free Reynolds Center workshop – Cracking Private Companies – on Jan. 5 in Phoenix.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• How are private companies structured and how are they different from public companies
• Where to find public information on private companies
• How to produce a better private-company profile

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Jodi Schneider

Jodi Schneider joined the Washington bureau of Bloomberg News as the team leader and editor for tax policy in fall 2010. Previously, she was a senior editor for American Banker, deputy editor for economics and finance at Congressional Quarterly, an assistant managing editor at U.S. News & World Report, and local business editor at The Washington Post.

A past president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, Schneider has taught college journalism courses, as well as serving as training director at Congressional Quarterly and as a frequent Reynolds Center presenter. She received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

AGENDA: Cracking Private Companies

12:45-1 p.m. Registration

1-1:10 p.m. Welcome and introductions

1:10-1:30 p.m. How are private companies structured and how they’re different from public companies

1:30-2:30 p.m. What’s public about private companies

2:30-3 p.m. Case study/small-group discussion: Where would you find the info?

3-3:15 p.m. Break

3:15-4:15 p.m. Re-imagining the private-company profile

4:15-4:45 p.m. Case study/small-group discussion: Some examples (multimedia) of good biz profiles – pick out what makes them good and present to the group

4:45-5 p.m. Class discussion: Five takeaways you can use starting tomorrow to cover private companies better

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Please do not register unless you are sincere about participating. Signing up and not participating deprives someone else of the opportunity.

Those who successfully complete three regional workshops or online seminars presented by the Reynolds Center are eligible to receive a “Circle of Achievement” certificate.

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