Business and Economic Reporting: Covering Companies, Financial Markets and the Broader Economy

Business and Economic Reporting: Covering Companies, Financial Markets and the Broader Economy is the perfect introduction for reporters who are interested in covering business and economics.

The manual explains the basics of writing about companies, commodities, markets and macroeconomics and explains what types of stories are considered newsworthy, how to structure spot news and market comments, what elements are essential to business and economic stories, how to use the internet to get information and what questions to ask.

Aimed at journalists working around the world, Business and Economic Reporting: Covering Companies, Financial Markets and the Broader Economy is affordable and easy to use. The book is a must for journalism students, journalists with less than five years of experience writing about business and economics and also for journalism instructors. It was written by Anya Schiffrin, Jane Folpe and Margie Freaney and published by the International Center for Journalists in Washington DC.

About the Authors

Margie Freaney
Trainer, International Journalism
International Center for Journalists

Margie Freaney spent 35 years as a newspaper reporter and editor, including positions as editor of the Baltimore Business Journal and executive editor of the Atlanta Business Chronicle. She now works as an international journalism trainer, with the International Center for Journalists and other organizations. She was founding academic director and is currently adjunct faculty for the Caucasus School of Journalism and Media Management in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Jane M. Folpe
Associate Director, Continuing Education
Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University

Jane M. Folpe is associate director of Continuing Education at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an instructor in Computer-Assisted Financial Reporting at the Universitat de Barcelona/Columbia University Master in Journalism Program in Spain.  She has lectured on this subject at workshops for journalists from developing countries at the Graduate School of Journalism and the Initiative for Policy Dialogue.  Previously, Ms. Folpe was a reporter at Fortune and deputy editor of Fortune’s Spanish-language supplement, Fortune Americas. She began her career in journalism at the Washington bureau of the Spanish daily, El Pais, where she also served as an editor on the foreign desk in Madrid.

Anya Schiffrin
Co-Director, Media Program
School of International and Public Affairs
Columbia University

Anya Schiffrin teaches at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She spent ten years working overseas as a journalist in Europe and Asia, writing for a number of different magazines and newspapers. She was bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswires in Amsterdam and Hanoi and wrote regularly for the Wall Street Journal. She was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1999-2000 and then a senior writer at the Industry Standard, covering banking and finance.