Five Questions with Bill Choyke

Bill Choyke has been the business editor of The Virginian-Pilot for more than five years. He recently spoke with Jonathan Higuera of BusinessJournalism.org about his approach to maintaining a vibrant business section during a time of industry change.

1. What are the major coverage areas for business news at your publication?
We’re local. Maybe not hyper local, but still local, local, local. We want our stories to have the urgency and credibility that a CEO demands, a sense of place for the ladder-climbing business person or somebody new to business, and we want to be engaging, informative and sometimes entertaining to the occasional business reader, so he or she will return the next day. Our main beats have been ports and shipbuilding, economic development, tourism and business of defense. More broadly, our reporters cover consumer spending, financial investing, health care and the workplace as well.

2. What types of stories resonate with your readers?
The most important thing is to have the basics covered, have credibility in the local business community and supplement with wires to remain engaging. We use The Wall Street Journal a lot. It covers a wide variety of stories of interest not only to the business reader but the occasional reader.

I take the position of you can’t be all things to all people. In the 10 years I’ve been in the business journalism area, there’s been a lot of tension about who we are. Do we write for consumers or the business community? I think you do both – but to an extent. It’s the variety that keeps readers coming back rather than one particular sector. I’m not a great advocate of consumer reporting as the major part of the business section because I feel like I’ve read the same story 15 times. But it’s a part of business coverage.

3. Is there a story or project completed by your section that you are particularly proud of?
A while back we did a series called “What’s in the Bill?” It was one of those consumer stories that is good and different. It took a look at a number of different utility bills and broke them down: What was being paid in taxes? What fees were being paid? We got good feedback on that one.

4. With all the changes going on at newspapers and in business sections, has your paper initiated any changes to your business section?
In March 2005, we went from four stock pages to two stock pages.  In October 2006, we started working more closely with advertising. I don’t mind working with advertising, but I don’t want to work with specific advertisers. That’s where I draw a distinction.

Working with advertising is working with ad placements. We’ll work on positions that make sense journalistically and make sense for advertising. But I don’t want to develop anything for a specific advertiser. There are certain areas where there should be barriers.

5. What advice do you have for those who manage and run newspaper business sections?
Think strategically. We may have our section yanked away tomorrow, but I hope not. A couple of years ago I thought strategically on how to keep my section. That convinced me that it starts with keeping the agate – hence, reaching out to advertising to try to develop win-wins.

Team meetings are also very important. Every Tuesday we meet at noon. When difficulties arise, they can help keep the togetherness of a team. Communication is an ongoing process. You can’t just start it. It is best to have it going all the time and institutionalize it.

And we shouldn’t be islands. That’s why I’m involved in SABEW. You get ideas. You take your own pulse when you are networking. You see what others are going through and it usually makes you better.

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