Wall Street in Crisis: Coverage Highlights

As Sunday’s Wall Street developments rolled into Monday’s market missteps, online coverage of the demise of Lehman Brothers, the sale of Merrill Lynch and the desperation of AIG continued to showcase business bloggers and innovative uses of multimedia.

Here, we roundup some of the more interesting approaches to spreading the news and breaking down the story for both local and national audiences.

• Columnist Steven Pearlstein of The Washington Post spent some time in a moderated question-and-answer session. Readers submitted a wide range of questions relating to the weekend's events on Wall Street, and Pearlstein combined his own analysis with links to relevant news stories.


• The Washington Post created a slideshow called "Wall Street in Chaos," showcasing the global impact of the events. The stills also highlighted the human side of the story through the mostly desperate expressions of those photographed.
  


• The Miami Herald personalized the Lehman Brothers story for local residents by examining the potential impact on Florida pension funds and the state-run insurer that holds Lehman securities.
  


• The Boston Globe localized the events by reporting on the "run by employees" on Lehman's Boston office. Police were called to the scene at 9:28 p.m. by a security guard who reported there was "a rush of people" trying to enter the building. No arrests were made and police said the incident was "not a situation that warranted police action." Several employees left the building with boxes but declined to comment.
  


• Jonathan Burton of MarketWatch penned a column on how current events affect the average consumer and what they should do going forward. He talked to industry experts, many of whom gave calming answers and assert that people shouldn't be panicking at this point.
  


• The Chicago Tribune's main packge was headed by several videos, including responses from the president, the two presidential campaigns and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.


• BusinessWeek's Karen McCormack brought together coverage of several industry blogs, which focus on the future of other banks, how CEOs are affected and the overall outlook for the markets.

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