Aprove Your Business

Terri ThompsonDean Rotbart of the 2020 Business News Visionary Awards interviewed Terri Thompson, who served as the director of Columbia University’s Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism from 1993 to 2018.Thompson was  Knight-Bagehot Fellow in 1980-81. “It changed my life in every single way possible,” said Thompson. “It was intimidating. It was extremely tough.”Lew Young, the editor at BusinessWeek, hired her after she completed the degree, to cover corporate finance. She also covered real estate and energy. At U.S. News & World Report, she covered personal finance and banking.When she was hired to run the Knight-Bagehot program, it was…

The Wall Street Journal staffers have been pressing newsroom leaders to make fundamental changes in how the newspaper covers race, policing, business and other topics, reports Marc Tracy and Ben Smith of the New York Times.Tracy and Smith report, “In a June 23 letter to the editor in chief, Matt Murray, a group identifying itself only as ‘members of the WSJ newsroom’ said the paper must ‘encourage more muscular reporting about race and social inequities,’ and laid out detailed proposals for revising its news coverage.“‘In part because WSJ’s coverage has focused historically on industries and leadership ranks dominated by white men, many of our…

Alex Kantrowitz’s new tech news website Big Technology has struck a syndication deal with OneZero.Kantrowitz writes, “If you’ve paid attention to tech news recently, you’ve seen OneZero explode onto the scene. In an age defined by outrage and hyperbole, OneZero’s built an audience by telling stories with thoughtfulness and nuance. Its measured coverage of issues like social media cults, digital surveillance, and online mourning in the COVID era has made it an indispensable read for me and many others. I couldn’t imagine a better partner.“Starting next week, you’ll see my weekly Big Technology article syndicated exclusively on OneZero. I’m extremely excited to bring my journalism…

Whit Shaw, the chief executive officer of American City Business Journals, wrote about how the parent company of 43 business journals will address diversity within the company.Shaw writes, “We are reviewing recruiting and hiring practices across the entire company. These reviews will lead to concrete action steps aimed at significantly improving the racial diversity of ACBJ.

Scott SoshnickBrad Adgate of Forbes interviewed Sportico editor in chief Scott Soshnick about the editorial strategy for the new sports business website.Here is an excerpt:How many reporters do you have on staff and what criteria did you use when selecting reporters? Does each reporter have a particular specialty in their sports business coverage? Scott Soshnick: We have 12 reporters on staff plus three editors.When we started thinking about building Sportico’s editorial team, we knew we wanted hungry, motivated and resourceful journalists. We also placed a premium on ego-free journalists who recognize the value of collaboration. And that’s exactly what we’ve got — a team…

The parent company of TheStreet Inc., a financial news website co-founded by media personality Jim Cramer, received a $5.7 million loan as part of a program aimed at helping U.S. small businesses weather the pandemic, reports Matt Townsend of Bloomberg News.Townsend reports, “The loan was included in documents released by the federal government on Monday chronicling the $669 billion Paycheck Protection Program. A spokesman for TheMaven Inc., which acquired TheStreet in 2019 for $16.5 million, said that for ‘ease-of-process’ reasons the borrowing was taken out under TheStreet’s name, but that it was for the entire consolidated company, which owns media properties such…

A large portion of pump OEMs’ growth will be driven by services in the next 5 years.Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, 2025 Vision: Future of Pumps in a Connected World, finds that an average of 50% to 60% of pump original equipment manufacturers’ (OEMs’) revenue is expected to be generated from services-related activities, such as real-time monitoring and reliability services.This will result in the pump industry transitioning from a product-based to a service-based model in the wake of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in this digitalization era. Global pump revenue is estimated to reach $46.92 billion by 2025 from approximately…

Some 4.8 million jobs were added in the U.S. in June but worry remains it would not be enough to restart the economy.Lucia Mutikani from Reuters wrote:The U.S. economy created jobs at a record clip in June as more restaurants and bars reopened, but 31.5 million Americans were collecting unemployment checks in the middle of the month, and a resurgence in COVID-19 cases suggested the labor market could suffer a setback in July.Record spikes in new coronavirus infections in large parts of the country, including Arizona and the highly-populated states of California, Florida and Texas, have forced several jurisdictions to…

Mandy MitchellMandy Mitchell, enterprise news reporter at WRAL, will be departing the station after nine years. She joined WRAL in 2011 as a sports reporter and anchor.She tweets:“Today is my last day at WRAL. I am leaving the TV business to start a new journey. Thank you so much for watching and for letting me tell your stories over the past 9 years. It’s been a privilege!”Previously, Mitchell was a spots anchor at WIS-TV and before that, she was a sports reporter at WPDE. In addition, she has also served as newscast videotape editor at WPEC-TV CBS 12 News.Mitchell is…

Mysti WillmonMysti Willmon has joined the Kemmerer Gazette as an editor. She says:“I’ve had an interesting journey that has led to newspaper work. When I first started college, I was going to get a literature degree and thought I would like to work in the publishing business as I am an avid reader. I own 300 books and I usually read 40 to 50 books a year. But I discovered I loved writing just as much as reading. I have been editing friends’ papers since the 8th grade and loved doing it. I started taking journalism classes and loved them,…

Business News spoke to three young women from WA who are illustrating the entrepreneurial spirit of Generation Z. The growth of Western Australia’s startup culture during the past decade has empowered a fresh generation of young business hopefuls to forge new pathways. While some of WA’s best-known business leaders started ventures in past decades painting houses, transporting chemicals or selling land, in 2020 the focus is on technology and sustainability. Three Perth sisters are among those to embrace the opportunities, having created the National Treasures app, a mobile game founded in 2018 that leads users on an adventure through the…

Greg Bartalos, the editor of RIA Intel, a website from Institutional Investor, writes about the reason for its success as it turns one year old.Bartalos writes, “Over several weeks and interviews, pressure built as I struggled to find a reporter. I was admittedly extremely picky but, given that RIA Intel was a new publication (and small operation), this hire would play a critical role in determining the website’s success.“Then, as if beamed down by a “Star Trek” transporter, Michael Thrasher suddenly materialized. When we met in Midtown Manhattan, he was brimming with energy, great story ideas, and a winning attitude. By all…

The latest CoreLogic Home Value Index recorded a drop in home values across each of the country’s five largest capital cities from the end of May to June 30.   Perth and Melbourne recorded the largest declines (1.1 per cent), while the indices for Hobart, Canberra and Darwin each recorded a subtle rise in values over the month.Despite values being down in June, CoreLogic’s estimate of home sales in June was up a further 29.5 per cent following a revised “surge” in sales activity during May driven by real estate agent activity, which CoreLogic said was now tracking higher than the…

The Wall Street Journal editor for standards and ethics Emma Moody sent out the following on Monday:The Wall Street Journal, as part of an A-to-Z review of its stylebook that began last year, now uppercases Black, and will use the adjective as the default reference to people and descendants of the Black African diaspora, rather than the less-precise African-American, when race is relevant in an article (Black person, Black literature, etc.) African-American remains acceptable in names of organizations and for people who state a preference for that term. The decision to capitalize Black recognizes the primacy of a racial, cultural and ethnic identity of American descendants of people who were…