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Workshop Registration
The Reynolds Center has announced its 2009-10 free workshop schedule.
Select a workshop and register from the drop-down menu below.
Online Seminars
The Reynolds Center registration for Fall 2009 free online seminars.
Executive Soap Opera
By Jennifer Hopfinger
Strategic Planning for a New Year
By Andre Jackson
Get Personal
By Chris Roush
A Focus on Housing
By Dick Weiss
Labor up Close
By Kelly Carr
Get Personal
By Chris Roush
January 13, 2009
Here’s my New Year’s resolution for business journalism outlets: Please provide more personal finance coverage to your consumers.
Personal finance is one of the underserved areas in most business media, especially the daily business section of metropolitan newspapers and the weekly business newspapers. It thrives in specialty monthly publications like Money, SmartMoney and Kiplinger’s.
But it’s time for business news coverage to make a seismic shift, given what’s going on in the economy in the past six months.
Our readers are struggling. Having rung up big debts on their credit cards and maybe taken on a mortgage that stretched their budgets, they now need us to provide advice on how to get out from under that mess.
Other readers might want help on putting together a household budget in today’s lean times. Still more need information on how to change that adjustable rate mortgage into a fixed-rate deal.
Yet these stories are rarely seen in most mainstream business media – the publications that most consumers read on a regular basis.
The issue for most business media outlets is that they have few staff writers who are personal finance experts. I don’t see that as a problem, but an opportunity. Those that don’t know anything are more likely to ask the dumb questions and write in an elementary fashion that’s likely to help the most people.
I know that I’m asking business news desks to add something to their coverage at a time when many of them are cutting back, and many others have a smaller news hole to fill due to their newspapers or publications downsizing.
But let’s remember that the mission of business journalism is to provide news and information to our consumers that they can use to improve their financial situation – whether it’s finding a better job or reading information about companies and buying or selling their shares or making a deal with someone else in business.
And there’s no better way to achieve that mission right now than increasing personal finance coverage.
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Copyright © 2009 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism
The Reynolds Center has announced its 2009-10 free workshop schedule.
Select a workshop and register from the drop-down menu below.
The Reynolds Center registration for Fall 2009 free online seminars.
By Jennifer Hopfinger
Strategic Planning for a New Year
By Andre Jackson
Get Personal
By Chris Roush
A Focus on Housing
By Dick Weiss
Labor up Close
By Kelly Carr
Get Personal
By Chris Roush
January 13, 2009
Here’s my New Year’s resolution for business journalism outlets: Please provide more personal finance coverage to your consumers.
Personal finance is one of the underserved areas in most business media, especially the daily business section of metropolitan newspapers and the weekly business newspapers. It thrives in specialty monthly publications like Money, SmartMoney and Kiplinger’s.
But it’s time for business news coverage to make a seismic shift, given what’s going on in the economy in the past six months.
Our readers are struggling. Having rung up big debts on their credit cards and maybe taken on a mortgage that stretched their budgets, they now need us to provide advice on how to get out from under that mess.
Other readers might want help on putting together a household budget in today’s lean times. Still more need information on how to change that adjustable rate mortgage into a fixed-rate deal.
Yet these stories are rarely seen in most mainstream business media – the publications that most consumers read on a regular basis.
The issue for most business media outlets is that they have few staff writers who are personal finance experts. I don’t see that as a problem, but an opportunity. Those that don’t know anything are more likely to ask the dumb questions and write in an elementary fashion that’s likely to help the most people.
I know that I’m asking business news desks to add something to their coverage at a time when many of them are cutting back, and many others have a smaller news hole to fill due to their newspapers or publications downsizing.
But let’s remember that the mission of business journalism is to provide news and information to our consumers that they can use to improve their financial situation – whether it’s finding a better job or reading information about companies and buying or selling their shares or making a deal with someone else in business.
And there’s no better way to achieve that mission right now than increasing personal finance coverage.
Copyright © 2009 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism