Who do you have on speed dial?

Stacy Hanna, a business reporter for the Battle Creek Enquirer (Battle Creek, Mich.) shares some of the tips she's learned from covering the business beat.
Hanna started as a business reporter for the paper four years ago and her beat included covering Kellogg Co.
She learned to keep a good calculator at her fingertips and to have someone check her math. She made friends with companies' gatekeepers and to spent hours with small business owners.
But the most valuable lesson she learned during her two-year tenure on the business beat was have Jim Hettinger, the local longtime chief executive officer for economic development group Battle Creek Unlimited, on speed dial.
Having a key source, one who knows the ins and outs of your community can make all the difference for the depth of your coverage.

If there is a business deal brewing or speculation swirling, Hettinger knows about it. More likely, he's smack in the middle of it. Nobody knows more about local economic development than he, and whether or not you care for the presentation, his take generally is spot on.
If your job (as was mine) is to explain to readers the headache-inducing Tax Increment Finance Authority or the Michigan Business Tax — loathsome tasks I've tried to erase from memory — Hettinger's your best bet. Or if you simply want to talk about the Cereal City's dated dependence on Kellogg and the likelihood we'd recover in the wake of its departure, he's your guy

So ask yourself today, who's on your speed dial?
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