The Career Ladder

By Henry Dubroff
December 10, 2008

In the old paradigm for careers in financial journalism, reporters used the weekly business journal as a stepping stone to larger metropolitan newspapers and, in a few cases, to national newspapers.

The Los Angeles Business Journal, for example, often was a way station on the road to a job at the Los Angeles Times or the Los Angeles Daily News.

The Denver Business Journal, where I worked during the 1990s, was a great place to get entry level experience before moving onto The Denver Post.

But look what's happened recently. The LA Times, among many other dailies, has been shedding personnel and cutting back on financial coverage.

Meanwhile, two former top editors of The Denver Post, former Executive Editor Neil Westergaard and former City Editor Mark Harden, have reinvigorated their careers at the Denver Business Journal.

There is a major paradigm shift going on. Well sort of.

Just as during past decades, the weekly business journal is still a great place to enter the profession of financial journalism. And thanks to workshops like those offered by the Reynolds Center and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the opportunities for training and development are many.

But what has changed is the progression above entry level. Business journals can now afford to pay more to mid-career folks. This complete with matching 401(k) plans has given people more incentive to stay put. These organizations have learned the value of having people stick around for their "institutional memory" and specialized expertise.

First, let's look at the overall makeup of a weekly business journal staff. Next we'll talk a little bit about specialized tasks, And finally, we'll describe some of the new paradigms for career advancement.

The typical business journal is run by an editor who spends most of his or her time editing stories, mentoring and developing talent in the newsroom, perhaps writing a column or editorials and being the public face of the newsroom in the community.

The managing editor is typically the No. 2, a production oriented individual who builds the main news section in Quark or In-Design and coordinates things to make sure deadlines are (more or less) met. Assistant Managing Editors may oversee subsections of the newspaper such as small business coverage or special reports.

Reporters typically specialize in beat coverage - and in some cases multiple beats that overlap. The retail reporter might also cover tourism, for example.

Essentially, each position fits into one of the following four areas of expertise in the business journal newsroom.

* Research/data mining/number crunching. At one time the research job was a mindless task of researching Top 25 lists. But with the arrival of the Internet as a research tool, the Top 25 research effort increasingly is automated. This leaves the researcher free to research court filings, transactions and other data resources that can lead to in-depth reporting.

* Reporting and writing. These continue to be among the most enduring jobs in the business journal world. Promising young reporters often are rewarded with analysis-oriented columns and the opportunity to write longer profiles. There is a tremendous opportunity for super-specialization in fields such as banking, technology or commercial real estate. And yes, business journal reporters actually get to write semi-long form articles that actually jump.

* Editing/design/production. Again, many reporters and editors are able to combine writing with some form of editing and design. Small business and special reports lend themselves to crossover skill positions, but typically, the managing editor of a weekly is more of a production person and the editor is more of a writing/story idea generation/supervisory job.

* Writing for the Web and blogging. Increasingly, business journals are developing specialization in Web-based reporting of breaking news, where short, punchy items are emailed to subscribers daily to drive Web traffic and build subscriber loyalty. However, today, most reporting and writing at weekly business journals, even for the Web, is done by the reporters on the beats.

In the current economic environment, the progression from business journal to the metro daily is a blind alley for most organizations. But business journals are great training grounds for specialized wire services such as Reuters or Bloomberg or other electronic services such as MarketWatch. These organizations offer global opportunities that business weeklies typically can't.

In addition, there is a demand for financial journalism skills in all sorts of places, even alternative weeklies, which are trying to expand beyond lifestyle reporting.

The breakup of journalism into targeted, niche markets leaves the business journal with some of the most stable opportunities - for reporters, for mid-level editors and for senior newsroom types. That means the weekly business journal may be the best place to start your career and the best place to stick around for a while and see what opportunities come along.

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