Want to know the truth about business journalists? Most of us are failed sportswriters. ... Think about what it takes to be a first-rate business journalist. One must be facile with numbers and financial statements and have the confidence to talk to CEOs, high-level executives, board members, analysts and so forth. One must delve deeply into the industry one writes about--what is the competitive landscape, what are the technological disruptions on the road ahead? It is also critical that one have a coherent global economic view to be able to put a story into context. And one must be a good storyteller.(HT: Wilson Mixon at Division of Labor)
Now, if one possesses all of these talents, what are the chances one goes into the low-paying field of journalism? Not great. One instead becomes a Wall Street analyst, a Booz Allen consultant or just goes into business, perhaps to raise money and start a company. Low-paying journalism can't compete for pick of the litter. (Unless it's Forbes, where journalists flock to a higher moral purpose!)
The thin talent pool in business journalism combines with two other forces: Journalism is populated by left-of-center people, many of whom are hostile to business; and traditional journalism itself faces threats of disruption from the Internet, leaving business journalists in a fearful mood, which gets projected into their stories.
Sunday 2 March 2008
Business journalism
Having made some comments in the past on the standard of economic and business journalism, see here and here, I was interested to see these comments in an article by Rich Karlgaard on Forbes.com,
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