Tales Well Told Carry the Day

By Dick Weiss
Oct. 1, 2007

We never tire of tales of the wealthy especially when their lives touch on the little people surrounding them. Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Diane Mastrull has been chronicling the exploits of an uber-wealthy heir as he tries to put 280 apartments on his legendary $40 million estate. The neighbors are appalled and up in arms.  And Mastrull’s piece isn’t just a story. It’s a saga.

Tampa Tribune reporter Richard Mullins has created an interesting niche for himself as a man who watches people work. This time he describes the plight of the people who climb, maintain and repair wireless towers. All too often they die in the process.

And for an object lesson on how to write colorfully and yet skeptically about a company’s multi-billion dollar bet on the future, check out The Kansas City Star’s look at Sprint Nextel’s plans for its new wireless network.

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3 Sprint Plans A New Wireless Network

Jason Gertzen and David Hayes of The Kansas City Star

Savvy business writers are expected to wade through the hype to provide keen analysis on whether a business plan will really work. But sometimes the hype is fascinating as it is with Sprint Nextel’s plan to blanket the nation with high-speed wireless internet access to homes, businesses and even vehicles. So Gertzen and Hayes draw readers in with the grand vision and how it might touch their lives. THEN they provide all the caveats concerning whether the company can actually get this to work. This is a well-crafted, insightful and readable story.

2The Most Lethal Job in America

Richard Mullins of The Tampa Tribune

This is a first for Dick’s Picks. Richard Mullin's’ story on an air-conditioning repairman appeared in the last edition. And now it’s two in a row. I simply could not pass up this fascinating account of the workers who climb cell towers to keep our BlackBerrys and iPhones humming. It’s an unbelievably dangerous job – they are up there in lightning storms for goodness sakes – and there’s little training or licensing. Note how Mullins induces vertigo in his readers by using the sights and sounds way up there in the air.

1 Main Line’s Fabled Castle Up In The Air

Diane Mastrull The Philadelphia Inquirer

Mastrull is masterful as she describes how a storied but very private 125-year-old estate is now at the center of a very public controversy.  Her descriptions are vivid. The estate is “inside the impenetrable walls of oaks, sycamores and pines” and is “a monument to the joys of money, and source of angst, anger and … litigation.”  At its center, she writes, is “a 35-room Gothic castle bristling with turrets and brimming with memories of high-hat life on the old Main Line.”  You can also admire this story for how well it's organized, drawing readers from one paragraph to the next for a wonderful Sunday read.

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