UNITY Brings Together Minority Business Journalists

In the corners of a Washington convention center packed with more than 8,000 journalists from around the country, reporters and editors discussed both the nuances and universals of covering the business beat well.

Behind the backdrop of UNITY, the largest convention of minority journalists, a handful of business panelists deliberated over documents, swapped sourcing strategies, pursued nonprofit coverage and hashed out investigative techniques in the nation's capital last week.

"Business does not have to be dull," said Edward Iwata, business writer with USA Today, speaking at an Investigative Reporters & Editors session on business writing. "There's drama. There's money. There's power."

To focus on that power, find the people. In a daylong workshop before UNITY formally began, IRE Executive Director Brant Houston pointed to documents that can expose the people behind the corporate curtain and the power switches at their disposal. He suggested employee rosters, board and committee membership lists, government audits, state incorporation records, annual reports and IRS Form 990s for nonprofits.

Nonprofits, whose stories aren't always found on paper documents, often present a greater challenge for business reporters. "The main thing in covering a nonprofit -- you have got to get to know their mission," said Norberto Santana Jr., reporter with The Orange County Register. "Go out there and visit the programs."

Go to the fundraisers and community gatherings. Give your business cards to everyone, from the front-line employees to the bus drivers and janitors. Find federal audits and, if possible, any correspondence between those regulatory agencies and the nonprofits. Check for lawsuits, large contracts and legislation that touch on these groups.

An even tougher task, conceded Ron Nixon, the computer-assisted reporting projects editor at The Star Tribune in Minneapolis, is breaking down the reporting barricades that shroud privately held companies from public scrutiny.

"But they have to report to somebody," he reminded, listing sources such as business license applications, trade publications, lawsuits, bankruptcy filings, uniform commercial code filings, vendors, ex-employees, competitors, internal newsletters, divorce records and the Better Business Bureau.

In fact, reporters should work those sources from the outside and push inward, said Alec Klein, an investigative business reporter at The Washington Post. Follow the trail of recommended names, from larger industry groups to a company's board members to an executive's secretaries. "Be nice to the secretaries," he added. They are often the best doors into a company's back chambers.

Iwata suggests calling sources at home in the early evening hours, before their favorite primetime show, when they've switched to a more relaxed mode.

Sources and documents, however, hardly finish off an investigative piece. When looking for inspiration during the arduous writing process, Fortune reporter Stephanie Mehta hunts down the "collected works of Carol Loomis," a colleague at the magazine whose conversational writing style brings life to her stories.

"She actually connects the dots for you in her stories," said Mehta, who reads Loomis' stories regularly during down time. "Every piece of hers is like a primer on investigative business writing."

Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism