Two Minute Tips

Yu Zhang

Yu is a passionate multimedia journalist who has reported on a wider variety of stories in the U.S. and China. Yu has investigated the state arrest of lawyers in China, left-behind children in rural areas, and talked to several founders of major venture capital companies.

My Latest Articles

Covering local community banks: Trends and stats

Community banks are essential to the local economy and play a vital role in the nation’s financial health. They provide business journalists a plethora of stories. To jump-start your reporting, here

LGBT-owned business: Stats and facts

LGBT-owned businesses can be a valuable topic for business reporters. While employee diversity has made headlines for years, stories on businesses that self-identify as being lesbian-, gay-, bisexual- or transgender-owned

How to use BLS data to report on women’s employment

When post-inauguration women’s marches made headlines across the country, women-in-the-workforce issues became hot topics. Here are some tips for using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to jump-start a story. Look at women’s

Covering tax season: How to get started

Now that W-2s and other documents are arriving in mailboxes, there’s ample opportunity for business journalists to find story angles around filing taxes. Here are three sources of information that

Water

Getting started on the business of water

Water, an increasingly dear commodity around the globe, offers a wide range of topics for business reporters. At their heart, water pollution, water system facilities and safe drinking water resources

Finding data on exported goods through Export.gov

The International Trade Administration provides reliable first-hand data for business journalists looking into trade affairs, which you can find at export.gov. One of the most important tools found on the

The self-storage industry is getting healthier by the year. (Image by Scott Meyers via flickr CC BY 2.0)

Self-storage facts to jump-start a business story

Downsizing baby boomers and small business are contributing to the self-storage surge in American. These facts should help jump-start a business story on facilities in your community. 10 quick facts about

Depending on their following online celebrities can easily make six figures a year. ("YouTube Logo" by Rego Korosi via flickr, CC BY 2.0)

The business of online celebrity

For most people, posting a video of a dancing chihuahua or re-Tweeting a politician’s quote is part of life on social media. But there’s a small group of online content

Community libraries have plenty of money stories waiting in the stacks. (Image by "thumpchgo" via pixabay)

Finding the money stories in your local library

Libraries are a vital part of many communities, even in the digital age. Between 2002 and 2012, public libraries’ total revenue increased 7.2 percent. With new funding streams such as partnerships

Movie theaters are combatting sinking sales with luxury service and immersive experiences. ("Popcorn" image by "annca" via Pixabay)

4 new movie theater trends

Facing competition from streaming services like Netflix, movie theaters have had a hard time in recent years. In 2014, movie attendance plunged to the lowest level in nearly 20 years.

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