Business Beats Basics Guide | The Reynolds Center

A guide to covering all things business.

Business Beats Basics

Journalists are often thrown into a new assignment, sometimes with little preparation, and covering a new beat can be terrifying – even for an experienced journalist. New beats are especially challenging when it comes to covering business topics, an area many journalists never expect to cover until it lands in their lap. There is new jargon to learn, history to understand, and always, the chase after “the new.”

The Reynolds Center is here to help you get a jump start on covering any kind of business beat. Need to know about technology? Check. Asked to write about manufacturing? We have tips just for you. Having trouble understanding the intricacies of the banking industry? We’ve got you covered.

Each beat is unique and, therefore, each of these chapters is capable of standing alone. Whether you’re assigned to cover a specific beat, or just need some help to get you through a story, our guide has answers on covering the economy, sports business, health care, insurance, transportation, and many, many more topics.

CHAPTER 1

Agriculture

This is one of the nation’s oldest and most valued industries. From syrup operations in New England to the vineyards of the West Coast, this beat offers unique and rich stories in every state with a lot of local angles to explore. This beat relies on making connections and understanding your local regulations.

CHAPTER 2

Sustainabilty

This beat is so much more than “reduce, reuse, recycle.” It is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. Sustainability stories can be about environmental initiatives, such as recycling, but they can also be about how companies treat their employees, customers, and suppliers.

CHAPTER 3

Energy

This beat covers one of the critical business sectors underpinning modern life. Using sources like coal, wind, and oil, energy companies provide the necessary fuel for lights, tools, and transportation. The energy beat is about supply and demand, infrastructure, the environment, consumption, and government regulation.

CHAPTER 4

Manufacturing

This beat is about how the things we use everyday are made. It touches on many parts of the economy and exists throughout the country in cities large and small. This beat requires a basic understanding of economics, technology, workplace issues, and international trade to report most effectively.

CHAPTER 5

Transportation

This business beat is all about moving people and things place to place, whether that be via air, rail, or some other form of travel. It also has some of the most easily accessible data available which can be both exciting and overwhelming to new reporters.

CHAPTER 6

Technology

The technology beat is a rapidly evolving field that impacts every industry in one way or another. From smartphones to military drones, it’s important to cover how advances impact the present and future. In this beat you will cover inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs in a wide-range of fields.

CHAPTER 7

Hospitals

The healthcare beat is a large one, and although hospitals may be only a small portion of that coverage, there is still a lot of business to cover. Hospitals are often a community’s largest employer, yet they receive far too little media coverage, given their crucial impact on the health of the community.

CHAPTER 8

Insurance

At its core, insurance is about the pooling of risk, and insurance companies certainly never want to risk their profits. Most insurance companies are well funded with lots of self-prepared data reports. Just remember that the insurance beat is all about people, and the key to covering it is pushing past the jargon to find the human connection in every story.

CHAPTER 9

Investigative

Investigative journalism is often defined as “the journalism of outrage” as it appeals to society’s sense of morality and fairness. This beat is all about finding the pieces of information that businesses, politicians, or other bodies are trying to keep buried in order to keep the general population informed.

CHAPTER 10

Government

The intersection of government and business is a beat that’s both necessary and full of potential stories. Businesses are heavily involved in politics and have the power to influence government policy on everything from food safety to healthcare and education. Most Americans are unaware of these connections, and this beat seeks to change that.

CHAPTER 11

International

We live in an increasingly globalized world, and businesses are no exception. Therefore, it’s more important than ever for journalists to produce balanced, accurate, and well-informed reporting from beyond their borders. This chapter will help you get started no matter where you are reporting from.

CHAPTER 12

Retail

This beat is about much more than just the latest and greatest fashion trends or what’s the latest gadget. Consumer trends in spending can tell you a lot about the economic health of an area, and there are countless manufacturing, environmental, and cultural impacts to explore.

CHAPTER 13

Sports

The business operations behind sports teams affect fans, the local economy, and even the future viability of the team. Whether you’re in a small town where high school sports are big news or a large city with a national stage, this beat is full of thrilling business angles. There is much more to be told in sports beyond who wins and loses.

CHAPTER 14

Personal Finance

Consumers don’t always have the same sentiment towards the economy as experts do. In this beat, you have a unique opportunity to help readers separate fact from fiction and help keep them informed on what they need to know when managing their personal finances.

CHAPTER 15

Real Estate

Although often thought of as a niche beat, everyone needs a roof over their head, including businesses. The ever-changing market trends of real estate have a big impact on your community and it’s a reporter’s job to explain those changes. Sources on this beat are eclectic and ever-changing, which can prove to be both challenging and exciting!

CHAPTER 16

Economics

This beat encompasses what’s happening with the prices of goods, labor, industrial production, property and so on, and how each of those impacts the financial stability and future growth of an area as a whole. There are many ways to measure the economy and it’s a journalist’s job to help make sense of those indicators.

CHAPTER 17

Banking

This beat may be a traditional business beat, but in today’s world, banking is anything but traditional. Banking has become an increasingly regulated and political industry with many angles to explore, including corporate governance reform, mergers and acquisitions, and changes in technology and user behavior.

CHAPTER 18

Companies

This beat encompasses public, private, and nonprofit organizations and the people that work for them. Because their daily operations, business decisions, and overall finances can have a large impact on governments, economies, and the environment, it’s important to uncover when they are not acting in the best interest of the public.

CHAPTER 19

8-K Filings

These documents are most likely to generate news headlines and tend to be rather reporter-friendly. You’ll find announcements of companies changing auditors, ending significant contracts, filing for bankruptcy, and much more. It’s important for any business reporter to know how to find and interpret these filings.

CHAPTER 20

10-Q and 10-K Filings

These two documents are loaded with numbers and accounting jargon, but they offer the most comprehensive view of how a company is doing. Since all publicly traded companies in the U.S. must file 10-Qs and 10-Ks with the SEC, these filings often have all the information companies purposely do not highlight in their press releases.

CHAPTER 21

Proxy Statements

From revealing what the top directors at a company are paid to adding context to merger decisions, proxy statements are among the most useful documents produced by companies when it comes to reporters finding their next story. Proxy statements tend to be more approachable than other documents since they are written for shareholders.

Supplemental Materials

These are some tips that can help you on any business beat, starting with how to ask for an interview via email. This section includes a checklist for before and during interviews with experts, tips to ensure you get the most from those conversations, and a paradigm for structuring your final business news story.

The Reynolds Center would like to thank all the people who were instrumental in making this book possible, especially the following:

Julianne Culey, Assistant Director
Aryn Kodet, Communications Specialist
Naomi DuBovis, Undergraduate Research Assistant
Ananya Bhargava, Undergraduate Research Assistant
Gary Slama, Intern
Jeffrey Timmermans, Director
Kelechukwu Irouma, Graduate Research Assistant

“Business Beats Basics” is based on a 2015 eBook “Beat Basics” originally conceived and produced by Elizabeth Mays and edited by Micheline Maynard. All of the material for the “Beat Basics” eBook was originally written by various veteran journalists for publication on the businessjournalism.org website between 2010 and 2014.