Traditionally, it’s a time for business writers to look at the travel and tourism outlook for summer.   You can check with area campgrounds, hotels, resorts and theme parks to see how bookings for the Memorial Day weekend and beyond are stacking up compared to previous years, and in turn how that affects hiring, purchasing of food and other supplies, and other transactionst that ripple throughout the local economy.

Here’s the Airlines for America summer forecast just out Thursday; it projects a slight uptick in passengers this year over last.   So far, AAA hasn’t released its summer tourism outlook but you can bookmark the site and keep an eye out for it.  Demand for hotel rooms is expected to be up slightly as well, according to an industry analyst.

Gas prices always get scrutinized around Memorial Day weekend; some reports say an uptick in crude oil production will keep prices lower this year than in the past couple of summers.   Still, businesses seem to be offering a number of promotional gas-cost offsets for consumers.  Progressive Grocer magazine reports, for example, that the Giant Eagle supermarket chain, for example, is offering a 20-cent discount per gallon to those who spend $50 in its stores, through May 29, to lure in Memorial Day weekend shoppers.  And the CVS drugstores’ ExtraCare rewards program will give shoppers a $10 gas card when they spend $30 on certain items.  Casinos nationwide routinely offer gas cards to woo players, and here’s a credit union offering $100 in free gas to car buyers who take out loans by Memorial Day.  Scooter sellers also are offering free gas to those who buy cycles through June 30.

OTHER IDEAS:

Food.  Stores cater to the taste for cookouts and barbecues with sales on traditional fare like meat, buns, condiments and potato chips.   What other trends are they chasing, from upscale grilling to new products like these Oscar Mayer bacon hot dogs.  What about vegan Memorial Day foods, or new offerings from craft breweries, area vineyards, cheese makers, specialty bakeries and the like?  Again, you can use the upcoming holiday weekend to set the stage for how your region’s food retailers, makers and restauranteurs expect to fare (no pun intended) in the summer of 2013.

Memorial merchandise.  Grave decorations and other items make this a brisk time of year for florists and purveyors of plastic plants.  Red, white and blue party supplies are staples at specialty shops and discount stores.  Sites like Amazon are even offering patriotic Memorial Day books,  jewelry — rings with images of soldiers on them,  for example — and patriotic porch flags and other goods all under one “roof’ if you plug in the Memorial Day search term.  Collectibles like the 50th Anniversary National Peace Officers Memorial Day badge also are out there.

Even people on the health care beat can find some tie-in, like how hospitals handle summer emergency room admissions — how do warm-weather injuries like fireworks burns, heat stroke and water-related accidents compare to winter problems?  Do ERs prepare or staff differently at certain times of year?

At least that’s what it seems like these days.  New industries are sprouting up to help companies in their pursuit of “big data.”

Reynolds Center presenters helped remind business journalists that data can work for them as well as they helped kick off the 50th anniversary of the annual Society of Business Editors and Writers conference in Washington D.C. last month.

A pre-conventinon session called “Breaking Local Stories with Economic Data” was designed to help local reporters identify and dig into useful data that can lead to good stories.

Speakers Jeannine Aversa and Thomas Dail, both public affairs specialists at the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), and Paul Overberg, database editor at USA TODAY, showed attendees how to use both databases and search tools to quickly find relevant data when researching local economic stories. | Self-guided training from a similar session held in Kentucky: Breaking local stories with economic data.

The self-guided training includes Overberg’s step-by-step PowerPoint demonstrations as well as video tutorials shown by all of the presenters. Tips and suggestions for using economic were very detailed.

The session included using stories from newspapers including the Houston Chronicle, USA TODAY and Durango Herald to demonstrate how local reporters dug past numbers and press releases to attain unique story angles relating to the community at large.

Some useful tips included ways to narrow your search: Bypass typing a topic into the search bar in favor of filtering data by year and industry, and using the BEA site to find the gross domestic product per capita in a particular metro area.

On the final day of the SABEW conference, the Reynolds Center and former business journalist and current professor Rosland Gammon helped lead a panel to discuss some best tips and practices for finding great sources.

Gammon read some quotes from her interviews with several hundred journalists on the topic of discovering great sources. Two Best in Business award winners, Michael W. Hudson of The Center for Public Integrity and Alison Young of USA TODAY, also shared their insights on how to uncover potential sources.

Rosland Gammon introduces panel speakers Michael W. Hudson and Alison Young during the "Great Sources, Great Storytelling" session at the 2013 SABEW annual conference.

Record sifting through public utility findings, logging onto Tobaccodocuments.org, and having a positive attitude when researching were some of the tips suggested at the panel.

Hudson, a Best in Business Winner for his “Fraud and folly: The untold story of General Electric’s subprime debacle”, encouraged reportersto speak to middle and lower-level employees at a company. “It’s important to find and cultivate low-level folk [...] it’s going to arm youwith more information when you go talk to the CEO,” Hudson said.

He also recommended going to an agency and showing up, saying there are always people in agencies who want to do a good job and do a good thing by helping journalists to find the documents they need to accomplish a story.

Young, whose story “Ghost Factories” also won a Best in Business award, emphasized the importance of outlining and concise writing.“Doing watchdog reporting in 400 words taught me to be a much better reporter,” Young said.

If a reporting team includes work with multimedia, Young said to keep copies of digital photos and videos in a personal file system in case the original file is misplaced.

Practical organizing and research tools such as DocumentCloud and Evernote were also suggested.

For more information on using economic data to report on local stories and for links to both the PowerPoint and videos for the presentation, visit these tips from the Reynolds Center.

Jacquelinne Mejia was one of two winners of the 2013 Reynolds Center SABEW fellowships. She is currently a multimedia producer for EC Hispanic Media in Los Angeles.

Judy D. Olian, dean of UCLA Anderson School of Management also announced that John Huey, former editor-in-chief at Time Inc. will receive the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award. Global enterprise editor at Reuters, Michael Williams, will be awarded the 2013 Lawrence Minard Editor Award.

Finalists in 14 competition categories were selected from more than 400 entries.

FULL LIST and press release about the finalists of the 2013 Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism

Huey and Williams will receive their career achievement awards at the 2013 Gerald Loeb Awards dinner on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at Capitale in New York City, where the Gerald Loeb Awards will celebrate 40 years with UCLA Anderson. 

The Gerald Loeb Awards were established in 1957 by the late Gerald Loeb, a founding partner of E.F. Hutton. His intention was to encourage reporting on business and finance that would inform and protect the private investor and the general public. For more information – Loeb Awards and dinner celebration.

2013 Loeb Award NOMINEES: 

Beat Reporting Category Finalists

• Erik Schatzker, Dawn Kopecki, Bradley Keoun, Stephanie Ruhle, Mary Childs, Christine Harper, Max Abelson and Rick Green for “Beached Whale: JPMorgan’s Huge Loss” – Bloomberg News
• Tom Bergin for “Corporate Taxation Series” – Reuters
• Tim Logan, Lisa Brown, Jeremy Kohler, Tim Bryant and Steve Giegerich for “Roberts Brothers” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Scott Patterson, Jenny Strasburg, Chris Canipe, Mike Sudal and Sarah Slobin for “Dark Markets” – The Wall Street Journal
• Steven Mufson for “Shale Gas” – The Washington Post

Breaking News Category Finalists

• Elisabeth Behrmann, Brett Foley, Firat Kayakiran, Jesse Riseborough, Zachary R. Mider, Matthew Campbell, Simon Casey, Kevin Crowley and Jacqueline Simmons for “Glencore Xstrata: Deal of the Year” – Bloomberg News
• Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Peter Eavis, Nelson D. Schwartz, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Nathaniel Popper, Edward Wyatt, Ben Protess and Mark Scott for “London Whale” – The New York Times
• Alistair Barr, John McCrank, Rodrigo Campos, Olivia Oran, Nadia Damouni, Suzanne Barlyn and Ryan Vlastelica for “Facebook IPO Coverage” – Reuters
• Thomas Lee, David Phelps, Janet Moore, Paul McEnroe, Tony Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy and Eric Wieffering for “Best Buy CEO Resigns Under Cloud” – Star Tribune
• Anupreeta Das, Jenny Strasburg, Jacob Bunge, E.S. Browning, Telis Demos and Sharon Terlep for “Buying the Big Board” – The Wall Street Journal

Broadcast Category Finalists

• Sharyl Attkisson, Chris Licht, Rand Morrison, Sharon Hoffman, Gavin Boyle, Keith Summa, Kim Skeen, Pia Malbran, David Small and Nancy Wyatt for “The Business of Congress” – CBS News
• Joe Ducey, Lauren Gilger, Gerard Watson, Scott Sherman, Maria Tomasch and Aaron Wische for “Ford Escape: Exposing a Deadly Defect” – KNXV-TV
• Byron Harris, Billy Bryant, Jason Trahan and Mark Smith for “Denticaid: Medicaid Dental Abuse in Texas” – WFAA-TV
• Martin Smith, Michael Kirk, Marcela Gaviria, Mike Wiser, Jim Gilmore, Tom Jennings and Doug Hamilton for “Money, Power and Wall Street” – FRONTLINE

Commentary Category Finalists

• Brian McGrory for “It’s Greed to Top All” – The Boston Globe
• John Gapper for “John Gapper (Financial Times)” – Financial Times
• Michael Hiltzik for “Michael Hiltzik on Business” – Los Angeles Times
• Morgan Housel for “Morgan Housel: On the Economy” – The Motley Fool
• Ilan Moscovitz for “On Financial Reform” – The Motley Fool

Explanatory Category Finalists

• John Schmid, Mike De Sisti, Lou Saldivar, Emily Yount and Nick Lujero for “Paper Cuts” – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
• Mike McGraw and Alan Bavley for “Beef’s Raw Edges” – The Kansas City Star
• Charles Duhigg, Keith Bradsher, David Barboza, David Kocieniewski, David Segal, Bill Vlasic and Hiroko Tabuchi for “The iEconomy” – The New York Times
• Thomas Frank and Christopher Schnaars for “Green Inc.” – USA Today
• Michael Kirk, Martin Smith, Marcela Gaviria, Mike Wiser, Jim Gilmore, Jason M. Breslow, Tom Jennings and Doug Hamilton for “Money, Power and Wall Street” – FRONTLINE

Images/Visuals Category Finalists

• Kenneth Cukier, Peter Winfield and Ben Thompson for “Live Charts” – The Economist
• Tom Giratikanon, Amanda Cox, Sergio Pecanha, Alicia Parlapiano, Jeremy White, Robert Gebeloff, Ford Fessenden, Archie Tse, Alan McLean, Shan Carter, Mike Bostock and Matthew Ericson for “Economy Interactives” – The New York Times
• Samuel Aranda, Mauricio Lima, Andrea Bruce and Adam Ferguson for “The Euro Crisis” – The New York Times

International Category Finalists

• Mehul Srivastava, Andrew MacAskill and Adi Narayan for “Mother India Starves Her Children” – Bloomberg News
• Michael Forsythe, Shai Oster, Natasha Khan, Dune Lawrence, Henry Sanderson, Chloe Whiteaker, Fan Wenxin, Michael Wei, Phil Kuntz and Ben Richardson for “Revolution to Riches” – Bloomberg News
• David Barboza and Sharon LaFraniere for “China’s Secret Fortunes” – The New York Times

Investigative Category Finalists

• Ames Alexander, Karen Garloch, Joseph Neff and David Raynor for “Prognosis: Profits” – The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer
• Patricia Callahan, Sam Roe and Michael Hawthorne for “Playing With Fire” – Chicago Tribune
• David Barstow, Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab and Stephanie Clifford for “Wal-Mart Abroad” – The New York Times
• Ryan Knutson, Liz Day, Travis Fox, Habiba Nosheen and Martin Smith for “Cell Tower Deaths” – ProPublica and FRONTLINE
• Brian Grow, Anna Driver, Joshua Schneyer, Janet Roberts, Jeanine Prezioso, David Sheppard and John Shiffman for “Inside Chesapeake Energy” – Reuters

Magazines Category Finalists

• Drake Bennett for “Marriage at 30,000 Feet (United/Continental Merger)” – Bloomberg Businessweek
• David Evans for “Duping the Donors” – Bloomberg Markets
• Richard Behar for “Hess Oil’s Russian Mob Problem” – Forbes
• Francine McKenna for “Social Media’s Phony Accounting” and “Lying With Numbers” – Forbes
• Connie Bruck  for “Cashier du Cinema” – The New Yorker
• Robert Capps for “Why Things Fail” – Wired Magazine

News Services Category Finalists

• Jana Randow, Jeff Black, Gabi Thesing, Anchalee Worrachate, Simon Kennedy and James G. Neuger for “The Plan to Save the Euro” – Bloomberg News
• Tom Bergin for “Corporate Taxation Series” – Reuters
• Brian Grow, Anna Driver, Joshua Schneyer, Janet Roberts, Jeanine Prezioso, David Sheppard and John Shiffman for “Inside Chesapeake Energy” – Reuters

Newspapers – Large Category Finalists

• Patricia Callahan, Sam Roe and Michael Hawthorne for “Playing With Fire” – Chicago Tribune
• Charles Duhigg, Keith Bradsher, David Barboza, David Kocieniewski, David Segal, Bill Vlasic and Hiroko Tabuchi for “The iEconomy” – The New York Times
• David Barstow, Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab and Stephanie Clifford for “Wal-Mart Abroad” – The New York Times

Newspapers – Small & Medium Category Finalists

• Ames Alexander, Karen Garloch, Joseph Neff and David Raynor for “Prognosis: Profits” – The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer
• Mandy Locke and David Raynor for “Ghost Workers” – The News & Observer
• Colin Woodard for “Virtual Schools in Maine: The Profit Motive You May Not Know About” – Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram
• Michael Sasso for “Gambling for Jobs” – The Tampa Tribune

Online Category Finalists

• Jim Morris, Chris Hamby and Ronnie Greene for “Hard Labor” – The Center for Public Integrity
• Matt Isaacs, Lowell Bergman and Stephen Engelberg for “Inside the Investigation of Leading Republican Money Man Sheldon Adelson” – Investigative Reporting Program at U.C. Berkeley, ProPublica and FRONTLINE
• John Schmid, Mike De Sisti, Lou Saldivar, Emily Yount and Nick Lujero for “Paper Cuts” – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
• Alison Young and Peter Eisler for “Ghost Factories” – USA TODAY

Personal Finance Category Finalists

• Lisa Gibbs, Ismat Sarah Mangla, Penelope Wang and Gary Weiss for “High Cost of Saying Goodbye Series” – Money Magazine
• Andrew Martin, Andrew W. Lehren, Ron Lieber and Tamar Lewin for “Degrees of Debt” – The New York Times
• Natasha Singer for “You for Sale” – The New York Times
• Jason Zweig for “The Intelligent Investor” – The Wall Street Journal

How are companies on your beat reducing their carbon footprint? By Flickr user Graeme Maclean

Recent news that carbon dioxide levels in the air have reached milestone levels (or near-milestone; some numbers were revised) got me to pondering some possible business stories related to the gas itself rather than to the larger and more amorphous topic of climate change.

If you need to brush up on your science, here’s the entry on carbon dioxide from the Encyclopedia of the Earth. CO2 is a gas produced in a variety of ways, from the respiration of humans and animals to volcanoes to the burning of fossil fuels.  Photosynthesis by plants uses up CO2 faster than our combined respiration produces it, but can’t keep up with the volume of carbon dioxide produced in the use of fossil fuels.  Hence, the ratio of carbon dioxide in the air today is four times greater than at any time in the past 800,000 years, the encyclopedia authors say.  As it builds up, it traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere – hence the moniker “greenhouse gas.”  Here’s a primer on CO2 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, including a pie chart on emissions by source.

The obvious step is to take a look at big carbon dioxide emitters in your area, and find out what they say they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint.  Here, for example, is the website of CARMA, a carbon-monitoring group that’s a unit of the Center for Global Development activist group. CARMA has mapped thousands of power plants and rated them based on their emissions; see how the plants in your area fare in the ranking.  

You can identify manufacturing plants in your area and ask what programs they are working on.  Here’s a Washington Post Wonkblog entry about the recent dip in U.S. emissions and possible causes (cleaner fuels, the recession-based drop in manufacturing, etc.) which may prompt questions for local executives.  And here’s a St. Louis Beacon essay which says natural gas obtained by fracking is a bigger problem, even if it burns more cleanly, and also says that U.S. companies are merely shifting CO2 producing activities overseas.  And here’s a Pew Charitable Trusts report from August 2012 on energy subsidies and carbon emissions.  Again, huge topics – but good questions for firms in your area. 

Transportation is a huge contributor of emissions; with travel season heating up, so to speak, you might want to check in at area airports (commercial and general aviation) to see what programs or initiatives are under way.   Europe appears to have a vigorous carbon management standard for airports; I didn’t find anything similar in the U.S. but you can try your state’s airport management association and groups like the American Association of Airport Management Executives in addition to contacting the airfields and related industry groups (airport consultants, aircraft manufacturers, etc.) directly.

Finally, as always, who benefits?  Why not look at the flip side of carbon dioxide, which has interesting industrial uses?  (Which is not to minimize or shrug off climate-change concerns, by any means, but merely to show that in business as in nature, even adverse circumstances bring opportunities for some entity or another.)  Here’s a Forbes report about the possible future of capturing CO2 and using it in industry; lots of industrial gases companies advertise CO2, which is used in things like soft drinks, respiratory therapy at hospitals, and even commercial greenhouses according to this information page from seller Praxair.  A big graphic or feature on “carbon dioxide in everyday life” might be an interesting counterpoint.  How is it captured, packaged, sold?  What is the cost of this common gas?  What is the potential for capturing even more and making use of it? 

Consider:

• It’s about competition, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat.The same is true of business journalism. We write about competition: Companies vs. companies, cities and states vs. cities and states, people fighting to land a limited number of jobs. This is never dry stuff in the hands of a gifted sportswriter, and the same should be true of our stories. Who’s on top? Who’s falling? What are “the standings,” the “pennant race,” the “playoffs” the famous rivalries and where is the search for redemption on your business beat?

The press box can be fun. Photo: Jenn Vargas

• Personalities bring readers. Every sports town has its favorite or infamous players, coaches and owners. Sportswriters help us get to know these people as if they were friends, neighbors and even family members. It’s not just about games and stats, but the individual’s tics, fears, arrogance, past glories, potential, disgraces and great quotes. Translate that to your most important and eccentric CEOs, entrepreneurs, managers in the firing line, union bosses, up-and-comers and the same magnetism is yours for the taking.

• Inside baseball stories are actually interesting. If, that is, they are told by expert reporters, offering insider knowledge and new information about a game you already saw and thought you knew. Yes, they primarily appeal to baseball fans (or football, basketball, soccer, etc.), but this is a large and — importantly — fanatical audience. Writing about what’s going on inside your local employers has the same appeal.

• Expertise matters. The best sports sections have expert journalists on every beat, from preps to professional. When a city lands an expansion team, the newspaper typically recruits a major league-level journalist as the lead writer. He or she brings the skill and seasoning, knows the game in and out, is on first-name terms with the players and coaches. In business, this brings a level of sophistication that produces stories that nail the sport and game with authority, tell insiders things even they didn’t know and makes them so riveting that even people with little interest in that company or industry will be drawn in.

• Great writing matters. Sports Illustrated made its name not with the swimsuit issue but with some of the finest writing anywhere. Especially in its glory days, this drew in people who didn’t really care about sports. The great journalist A.J. Liebling covered wars, McCarthyism, politics, life in New York — but he was also a sportswriter, especially in his timeless essays on boxing. At its best, sportswriting tells stories of eternal human dreams, dilemmas, mysteries and allegories. We should be writing this way, too, because the messy business of making and spending money is one of the most compelling human stories (see Gatsby, The Great).

• Destinations and community. Sports sections offer columnists with strong voices, insights and opinions — love ‘em or hate ‘em, you’ve still got to read ‘em. It also offers a chance to create reader forums, Letters to the Sports Editor and hundreds of reader comments on stories. Business sections may never reach this level of fanatical reader interest, but we should try. We’re writing about (or should be) money, power, the chance to get ahead, the intersection of big money and its influence on government, huge corporations that influence our lives and society much more than nine ballplayers.

* Stats. Newspapers long ago did away with pages of stock listings — not a smart thing considering the many older readers who didn’t have Internet access or preferred to read them on dead trees. But the stats are some of the most read items in any sports section. It should be that way for business, too. Now, both in print and online, a host of business information can make for customized tables (and graphics).

 Don’t expect the same money or space. But sports still has much to teach us.

And for more about the sports and business, the Reynolds Center has a Beat Basics written by the Arizona Republic’s Craig Harris: Business of Sports, an introduction.

Talk with health care professionals, medical center executives, insurers and others for stories on the genetic testing industry.

It’s hard to overlook the buzz created by this week’s revelation by actor and activist Angelina Jolie that she had preemptive surgery to remove both breasts, because she carries a gene that makes cancer likely. 

News of Jolie’s decision, which she wrote about in a first-person New York Times essay on Tuesday, has generated a great deal of discussion about health care, medical decision-making and ethics — but I spy some business stories in this topic, as well.  As advances in laboratory science, health science informatics and other related disciplines continue to burgeon, they are driving a new industry that not only is supporting traditional health care, but creating direct-to-consumer applications. 

So if you cover health care systems, insurers or any related fields, you can approach this from the medical angle.  It was surprising to hear, for example, that a publicly traded company owns the patent on the $3,000-plus test for the gene Jolie carries, BRAC1. here’s a Wall Street Journal piece on the company, Myriad Genetics, and its nearly half-billion dollar annual revenue from tests like the BRACAnalysis. 

Indeed, a pending case before the Supreme Court explores whether firms like Myriad should be allowed to hold patents on human genes; here’s the take of the ACLU (a party to the suit), which argues that genes are a product of nature and that private control of these discoveries stifles the availability of diagnostic testing.  It’s an interesting conundrum.  Here’s a Salon story from Tuesday that helps explain the technical details. 

Meanwhile, you might want to talk with health care professionals, medical center executives, insurers and others about the growing field of genetics and genetic counseling.  What services are available to consumers, what’s covered by insurance (and how will that change next year when the Affordable Care Act fully kicks in) and what is the cost-benefit of advance warning for diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s to birth defects in unborn children? 

You can seek out biomed companies in your area and ask if any of their work involves patenting genes or genetic tests.  I was not able to find a directory but your area’s universities may be able to point you to start-ups.  The Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University has some interesting reports, as well.  And of course, industry analysts at brokerage firms may be able to point you to established players in your region. 

Direct-to-consumer genetic testing is a controversial area you may wish to explore.  Many sites on the web offer home DNA kits for disease screening and even ancestry information for those who want more information about their ethnic heritage.  Paternity kits are out there, as well. 

Here’s a recent report on “Market Trends in Genetic Services” from the consulting firm Booz/Allen/Hamilton — it notes that some 2,886 genetic tests were available in 2012, up from 1,680 four years prior.  And this media release from Global Industry Analysts Inc. says the genetic testing market is expected to near $2 billion by 2015; with newborn screening, detection of cancer and preemptive testing for conditions like diabetes expected to rise in demand.  UnitedHealthGroup, a large insurer, posts even larger figures: it says the current market is $5 billion and that it’s expected to grow to $25 billion by 2021.

For the quirky, labs also offer genetic testing of pets, for those who must know the true bloodlines of Rover and Rex. 

The Particulars

When:
Aug. 24, 2013
9 a.m. – noon

Where:
Anaheim Marriott
700 West Convention Way
Anaheim, Calif. 92802

Instructor:
Mark S. Luckie,
Twitter’s creative content manager
for journalism and the media

Host:
This morning workshop
takes place before
Excellence in Journalism
2013 Convention.

Hotel:
Anaheim Marriott
700 West Convention Way
Anaheim, Calif. 92802

Discounts are available
through the
Excellence in Journalism
Conference.

Registration is $25 for this
half-day workshop before
the Excellence in Journalism
Conference.

Registration for the rest of the
EIJ Conference is not required.

Photo by flickr user Victor1558

Whether you’re working in a mainstream news organization or striking out on your own with a blog, news site or freelance business, we’re all media entrepreneurs these days.

In this workshop before the Excellence in Journalism (EIJ) 2013 Conference in Anaheim, Calif., learn how to brand and market yourself and to pitch your ideas, plus understand the basics of financial and time management. And leave with five things to do when you get home to advance your career as an entrepreneur.

Mark S. Luckie, Twitter’s creative content manager for journalism and the media, shows you the ropes. He started the 10,000 Words blog and sold it to Mediabistro. He’s also the author of The Digital Journalist’s Handbook.

PLEASE NOTE: Attendees must sign up for this pre-conference workshop and pay $25. Registration for the rest of the EIJ Conference is not required.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

How to:

• Turn your idea into a business
• Brand yourself and project your worth
• Pitch your idea
• Build a community of followers
• Find funding
• Manage your time and finances

IS THIS HALF-DAY WORKSHOP FOR YOU?

This workshop is designed for both those thinking about setting up their own media business, as well as those within mainstream media organizations who want to approach their jobs with an entrepreneurial bent. Even if you’re not setting up your own business immediately, you’ll learn how to better brand yourself as an expert and increase your value to your current employer.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Mark S. Luckie

Mark S. Luckie became Twitter’s creative content manager for journalism and the media in June 2012. Prior to joining Twitter, he was the social media editor for The Washington Post.

He founded the 10,000 Words blog in 2007 and sold it to Mediabistro in 2010.

Luckie is an experienced journalism trainer and also the author of The Digital Journalist’s Handbook.

Self-guided training in being an entrepreneurial journalist

Please check out other Reynolds self-guided training on entrepreneurial journalism, branding and social networking:

• Branding for Journalists: You Being You… Online
• Getting LinkedIn — Sourcing through Social Networking
• Digital Efficiency for Business Journalists — 36 Tips to Tame Info Overload
• Sales Strategies for Freelance Business Journalists
• How to Launch You.com — Build Your Personal Website
• How to Be an Entrepreneur as a Business Journalist
• Social Media 101, 202, 303

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

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

The Particulars

When: 9:40-10:40 a.m.  June 21

Where:
San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter
101 Bowie St.
San Antonio, Texas 78205

Panelists: Pulitzer winners David
Barstow of The New York Times
and freelancer Alejandra Xanic
von Bertrab of Mexico City.

Moderator: Leonard Downie Jr.,
vice president at large of The Washington
Post and Weil Family Professor of
Journalism at the Walter Cronkite
School of Journalism and Mass
Communication

Host: This session takes place during the
Investigative Reporters and
Editors (IRE) annual conference.

Lodging:
San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter.

Conference hotel rates are
$170 a night, plus 16.75% tax,
through May 24 or until the room
block sells out.

Conference registration is
required.

Pulitzer winners David Barstow and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab headline this session at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference: Cracking Corporate Corruption at Wal-Mart.

The duo’s investigation into corruption in the world’s biggest retailer won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.

Barstow’s initial story on how Wal-Mart covered up its use of bribery to fuel its Mexican expansion (PDF) also won the 2012 Barlett & Steele Award for Investigative Business Journalism.

They will be questioned by longtime Washington Post editor Leonard “Len” Downie Jr. on how they obtained hundreds of confidential company documents and how they also used Mexico’s Freedom of Information Act. There will also be time for audience questions.

PANELISTS

The New York Times' David Barstow

David Barstow,a senior writer at The New York Times, is the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes. In 2013, he and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for “Wal-Mart Abroad,’’ a series that exposed Wal-Mart’s aggressive use of bribery to fuel its rapid expansion in Mexico.

In 2009, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for “Message Machine,’’ his series about the Pentagon’s hidden campaign to influence news coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2004, he and Lowell Bergman were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for articles about employers who committed egregious work place-safety violations that killed or injured hundreds of American workers. Before joining the Times in 1999, he was a reporter for The St. Petersburg Times in Florida, where he was a finalist for three Pulitzer Prizes.

Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab

Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab is a freelance journalist who shared the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting with Barstow. Xanic, as she’s known to colleagues, has worked for two decades as a reporter in Mexico. As a reporter with Siglo 21 newspaper in Guadalajara, she looked into the causes of a gasoline-leak explosion that destroyed several kilometers of homes. As a member of the paper’s investigative unit, she worked on stories ranging from drug trafficking to state corruption.

As a reporter in Mexico City, she worked for the Mexican edition of Gabriel García Marquez’s magazine, Cambio, and was an editor for four years at the business biweekly, Expansion. In 2010 and 2011, Xanic was part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists team that investigated big tobacco’s global lobbying strategies.

MODERATOR

Leonard Downie Jr. is vice president at large of The Washington Post, where he was executive editor from 1991 to 2008. He is also the Weil Family Professor of Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. During his 44 years in the Post newsroom, he was also an investigative reporter, editor on the local and national news staffs, London correspondent, and, from 1984 to 1991, managing editor under then-executive editor Ben Bradlee. As deputy metro editor from 1972 to 1974, Downie helped supervise the Post’s Watergate coverage. He also oversaw the newspaper’s coverage of every national election from 1984 through 2008. During his 17 years as executive editor, The Washington Post won 25 Pulitzer prizes.

More on the Award-Winning Wal-Mart investigation:

• The stories that won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting:

1. Vast Mexico bribery case hushed up by Wal-Mart after top-level struggle (PDF)
2. The bribery aisle: How Wal-Mart used payoffs to get its way in Mexico (PDF)

• ProPublica’s interview of David Barstow about the Wal-Mart stories in January 2013
• Barlett & Steele winner David Barstow: Unraveling the Wal-Mart bribery story on BusinessJournalism.org.
• Transcripts of Democracy Now’s two interviews of David in January 2013: Part 1 | Part 2

2012 Barlett & Steele Award Winners from Reynolds Center on Vimeo

According to this MarketWatch report, the cost of an average wedding slumped 32 percent during the recession, and while the numbers did rebound somewhat, they’re rather flat and still well under pre-recession peaks.  That means a lot of local businesses and vendors that depend on the bridal trade may be limping along themselves, or finding new income streams to make up for the more sedate bridal business.  (Note, if you take a personal finance tack, the MarketWatch piece also includes a number of caveats for wedding couples, related to service contracts.)  For example, I recently posted about a wedding organizer who was branching out as a prom consultant.  Florists, bakers, stationery providers, DJs and the like might also be finding new and newsworthy lines of business.

The research firm IBISWorld says the wedding industry is a $51 billion economic driver, and provides its research upon request to reports.  Other background information can be obtained via sites like The Knot, which is recently out with a consumer survey on everything from number of bridal party attendants to popular wedding theme colors.   And here’s a wedding trends story from the Huffington Post, with factoids like tequila being the top liquor of 2013. The Wedding Report, a subscription-based market research service, also posts factoids on its site; it entertains media requests for information via an e-mail address. 

Other ideas:

Non-weekend weddings.  Not super-new but this is one way couples can both economize and get a better shot at their venues of choice.  A graphic on the difference in price at area venues on, say,  a Thursday compared to Saturday or Sunday could be a good clip-and-save feature for your audience.   Limousine services, flowers, all of the other accoutrements likely are cheaper mid-week, too. 

Green weddings.  What are the options for those interested in sustainability?  From eco-chic couture organic wedding gowns to recycled-gold rings with fair-labor stones, brides and grooms are seeking more earth-friendly ways to say “I do.” Again, you might take the traditional trappings of a wedding and show consumers what “green” alternatives exist.  It’s definitely a marketing engine, judging by the number of sites offering earth-friendly favors, invitations and the like — but be sure to consult some experts about whether these tweaks really do much good for the earth.  If recycled paper invitations cost more but don’t really save any trees, consumers should know.

Same-sex weddings.  As more states legalize and recognize same-sex unions, they’re also recognizing that same-sex couples and their families are an underserved market when it comes to nuptials.  Here’s a recent MiamiHerald piece, for example, about the historic Biltmore Hotel’s efforts to attract the patronage of same-sex couples.  If your area permits gay marriage, check to see if any tourism or other economic boon is a result.  If it’s still prohibited, find out where gay couples from your region are headed to say their vows.  Are any local consultants helping to make arrangements at far-flung venues, or otherwise stepping into the business niche?   Sites like GayWeddings.com, for example, have searchable vendor lists and other resources that might point you to pertinent small businesses in your area.

Kyung and Janet focus on H-1B visas that allow companies to temporarily hire foreign skilled workers. They use data for Microsoft in their story, but Kyung says the story can be localized. “It would require some digging, and a bit of spreadsheet analysis,” she says.

Kyung says to start with the Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification, which keeps a database of visa and green-card applications. The information can be sorted by employers or by state. For instance, this link shows national information such as number of applications and top 10 employers.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has specific company data; however, contacting Ron Hira, a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, who uses the data, might be quicker, Kyung says.

“I suspect most employers will not readily divulge the percentage of foreign workers on their payroll,” she says. “Microsoft did, but even it refuses to say how many visa workers it hires through contracting firms.”

Also, find and interview workers hired through the visa program, since there is a direct impact on them as well, she says.