Essential Reporting

By Dick Weiss
May 5, 2009

At a time when media companies are laying off journalists in droves, we highlight three business stories that demonstrate why reporters are so essential to their communities. Well-trained, experienced reporters dig up stories that citizen journalists and bloggers can’t.

The first story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which details how felons get mortgage broker licenses and access to sensitive personal data like social security numbers, is a great example of watchdog reporting. A report from The News & Observer provides a nuanced look at how employers in these recessionary times are still looking to hire illegal immigrants even with their pick of native workers. And our top pick from the Star Tribune is a well-written and poignant look at self-employed business people who have no safety net to catch them when their businesses fail.

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3 Criminal past no barrier to mortgage field
Cary Spivak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Spivak reveals how easy it is for someone in Wisconsin to get a license to become a mortgage broker. He reports that former convicts with records ranging from financial fraud to murder have been granted licenses that give them access to people's financial files. And here’s a model for a crisp lede that grabs readers quickly: A killer, a handful of drug dealers and a onetime leader of the Latin Kings - these are just some of the criminals who have received state-issued licenses to write your mortgage loan.

2 Citizens, illegal immigrants jostle for jobs
Kristin Collins of The News & Observer
Collins reports a rise in competition for jobs that until recently only illegal immigrants would take. Her carefully balanced story is a model of presenting various sides to an issue, representing the perspectives of employers, illegals and native workers.

1For the self-employed, lost dreams and vacant offices
Dee DePass of the Star Tribune
DePass found that small businesses are closing with little press attention because they don't affect a great number of people in one fell swoop. Yet, she reports, the cumulative affect of such closings may be just as significant. And to the operators of the businesses the impact is as devastating as to those who are laid off from working for others - and those who fold their businesses get no unemployment benefits. DePass provides a lede that plays the irony card forcefully and well.

Copyright © 2009 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism