Reed Business Information needs reporters

Reed Business Information, a business-to-business online media/publishing company, is looking for a reporter to cover the gas, power and carbon market in New York.
The reporter's responsibilities would include covering daily news stories on events impacting the markets, helping cover policy development and assessing and writing comments on OTC prices. You can see the listing here. Reed is also looking to place another reporter with similar responsibilities in Washington D.C.
The company is also seeking construction data reporters for jobs in Georgia and Colorado.
All of the positions are full-time and offer medical plans, welfare plans and vacation time.
Learn more about the company here.

AP Stylebook adds business terminology

Business news is gaining popularity and the Associated Press' new entries for their 2009 edition Stylebook is proof that business journalism coverage is making an impact on both the industry and world.
Business terms such as credit default swaps and derivatives have been added to the book due to more frequent usage during the global recession, The AP announced this week. 
Other business terms added to the 2009 Stylebook are collateralized debt obligations, Libor, recession-proof, reverse auction, securitization and solvency.

Click here for more information on the changes made to the Associated Press Stylebook 2009 edition.

Reuters and SABEW team up for discussion session

It comes as no surprise that our industry is changing.

To help prepare for the needs of the future, Reuters and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers are teaming up to host a discussion with some of the top producers in business journalism.

The dicussion, being held Tuesday, June 30, will include the following panelists: 

Chrystia Freeland, US managing editor, Financial Times
Larry Ingrassia, business editor, The New York Times
Sree Sreenivasan, dean of student affairs & new media professor, Columbia Journalism School
Laurel Touby, founder & CEO, Mediabistro.com

The discussion will be moderated by
Betty Wong, global managing editor, Reuters.

Get full details here.

Rocky Mountain News archives to go to Denver Public Library

Westword's Michael Roberts reports that the Denver Public Library and the Colorado Historical Society will preserve that Rocky Mountain News archives and artifacts.

In an announcement made this week,  Rocky's former parent company, E.W. Scripps noted that the library will assume ownership of the publication's archives, including all digital and paper newspaper clipping files, microfilm reels, digital and photographic files and marketing materials.
Negotiations between Scripps and the Colorado Historical Society for artifacts like signs, special editions and other information that documents the history of the publication are currently underway. 

From the story:

"This material is separate from the Rocky's intellectual property: the name, its web address and so forth. That material will be sold, and although Scripps hasn't officially acknowledged that it's getting serious about auctioning off these items, two major media players confirmed that the company has begun reaching out to potential bidders."

ESPN mag Web site to merge with Insider content

Come August, ESPN The Magazine's website will start charging for its content, the company announced this week.

The publication's content, which consists of a video series an ongoing web articles, will become part of ESPN's Insider content, which costs$6.95 a month, or $39.95 a year.

The Insider, which has about 350,000 paying subscribers, will still be available gratis to ESPN Magazine subscribers for one year.

View the story here.

Business news has new significance

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that since the sink of the economy, viewership for business and financial news has risen, leading to the popularity of finance news and the journalists who cover it.

The story notes that national networks like CNBC, CNNMoney.com and Fox Business Network have all seen an increase in viewers since the Lehman Brothers filed for bankrupcy Sept 15, 2008.

And primarily female reporters covering the financial meltdown have gained esteem on the beat.

From the story:

"Sandra Smith, a reporter for Fox Business Network, has a less piggish take on why women reporters have stood out in the last couple of years.
'I think females can do a very good job of showing the softer side when covering these kinds of stories,' said Smith, who hails from Chicago. 'I can't tell you the number of victims I've talked to who have lost so much of their net worth. You can't just treat them like their only purpose is to fulfill a story.'"

Riding the wave

This week Google announced its new communication tool, Wave.

Due out sometime this year, the application imcorporates the elements of conversation and an electronic documents.

With Wave, people can communicate and collaborate with text, photos, videos, and maps in real-time.
Participants can also reply anywhere in a message feed, edit content and add participants to the process. 

The product idea, which originated from the success of email and instant messaging, has been in the works for more than two years.

From the post:

"It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave and see how it evolved," said Lars Rasmussen, Google's software engineering manager.

European media covering U.S. housing collapse

European media from Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands have been asking The Sacramento Bee for help in covering the collapsed housing market in California.
More and more of these news organizations time zones away are trying to show the repercussions of America's faltering housing industry on their struggling banks.
This is a sign business journalists more than ever need to think about coverage on a global level.
View the story here.

Playboy may be up for grabs

The New York Post reported today that Hugh Hefner's Playboy Enterprises is quietly for sale. The well-known empire is reportedly being shopped around for $300 million but no interested parties have stepped forward to make an offer, New York Post sources said.

The iconic brand has been doing a lot of cost cutting and in the most recent quarter, the company said it lost $13.7 million. Revenue is also down for Playboy.

From the article:

"The empire's iconic bunny ears are one of the most identifiable trademarks in the world, but the empire has fallen on hard times as the Internet and video-on-demand have eroded its core brand, the magazine."

More details on Portfolio.com revival

Wednesday's announcement has people talking about the reincarnation of Portfolio.com in the hands of American City Business Journal's Bizjournals.com.
Under the new rule, the site will employ five editorial staffers with Portfolio.com managing editor, Josh Moss as the lead.
But full control, including editorial power, will be with ACBJ to give Portfolio a "stronger focus on industry news", said Tim Bradbury, president of ACBJ.
Portfolio.com will also have unique access to local markets and ACBJ newsrooms across the country.
Group president of Condé Nast, David Carey, noted that the chain of American City Business Journal weeklies would benefit from Portfolio.com's "long tail" of traffic.

BizSense adds to their team

RichmondBizSense.com founder and editor, Aaron Kremer announced the addition of new writer, David Larter, to their staff today.
Larter, who will graduate from the University of Richmond in December, will cover some new beats for the Virginia-based Web site including local universities, health care, technology and nonprofits.
Larter is working full time for the site through the summer. In the fall, he will continue on as a stringer prior to graduation.
See the full story here.

Business writer wins Mirror Award

Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications gave a "People's Choice" award in the third annual Mirror Awards competition to Fast Company's Clive Thompson, the school announced today.
Thompson won the People's Choice category of Best Single Article, Traditional Media for his piece, "Is the Tipping Point Toast?", a story on marketing industry techniques.
View a full list of the winners here.

Huff Post hires former biz editor

Former Washington Post business editor, Lawrence Roberts, was named as the head of a new Investigative Fund for the Huffington Post today.
The fund, which launched in March with an initial budget of $1.75 million, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit initiative with the goal of producing multimedia investigations.
Read the story here.

Portfolio.com relaunches

Condé Nast's Portfolio.com will have a new place to call home this July when it moves to American City Business Journals Inc.'s Bizjournals.com.
Bizjournals will oversee the editorial and business sides of the site from New York, Condé Nast and American City Business Journals announced Wednesday.
From the story:

"In addition to newly created content, Portfolio.com will share content with other Condé Nast sites such as Wired.com, GolfDigest.com, and WWD.com, as it did before. It also will be the home of the archives of content published by Portfolio’s print and digital properties over the past 24 months."

See the full story here.

SmartMoney editor leads writing course

SmartMoney senior editor, Beverly Goodman will teach an online course on Mediabistro.com next month to help journalists hone their business writing skills.
The four week financial writing course, being held June 2- June 30, will offer an interactive experience for writers to achieve timely and original business angles in these challenging economic times.
Find complete course details here.

Nieman Foundation selects biz journalists

Business journalists are among the 24 journalists selected for the Nieman Foundation for Journalism's 72nd class of fellows.
Announced Tuesday, the class of 2010 includes Wired magazine contributing editor, Jeff Howe who will examine crowdsourcing and its use in the development of sustainable journalism models.
Other fellows focusing on business issues will research topics like the economic impact of Latin American immigrants into the United States and the interconnection of the economy with life issues like foreign policy and health care.
See a full list of the 2009-2010 fellows here.

Still hope for newspapers

In a recent Forbes.com article, Lauren Rich Fine, director of research at ContentNext Media, urges newspapers employees to expand their boundaries and challenge current media norms with creative alternatives in order to prolong their longevity.
"The world is changing. Newspapers need to change with it," said Fine who also is a practitioner in residence at Ohio’s Kent State University College of Communication & Information.
Fine suggests media companies re-vamp their community relationships by having reporters interact more with residents. Also, newspapers can add value to their content for the communities they serve by embracing new media options for better engagement.