This morning I stepped onto the podium to help ring the Opening Bell for the New York Stock Exchange. I'm here with 38 other educators learning how the market is changing, and moving more into an automated exchange.
About 9:15 we were summoned to go down to the bell podium overlooking the main floor of the exchange. John Thain, CEO of the exchange, accompanied our group. We looked out over the floor with our eyes on the digitial clock right in front of use. Traders gathered to watch, as our group representative, Chris, a teacher from Brighton, Mich. pressed the green bell button precisely at 9:29:50. A focus of concentration, he pressed the button for 10 seconds, and when the bell stopped it's clang, trading began.
The sound is deafening, let me tell you. And we all hoped for an up market, though the futures market, which had opened earlier, was down. Not a good bellwether.
See us: http://www.nyse.com/events/1187606558606.html
At the end of "our" day, the NYSE did close down (the NASDAQ closed up) but more than 3 billion shares were traded, contintuing to buck the usual trend of slow trading days in August.
Check back for more information, live from the NYSE.
--Marty Steffens
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Transparency is the new trend
The website, trendwatchng.com, today talks about the newest trend, which is that today’s consumers demand as much transparency as possible. In the news business, how can we make our news more transparent?
Should we have an editor’s note or behind the scenes note with every story, much as magazines do? Should we do video cam broadcasts of story meetings? Should we list a “bibliography” of resources that we use for every story? I know we usually cite the sources of direct quotes, but should we run the sources for all information used in the story. We are transparent when we run reader comments, but should we not allow screen names, and only real names on reader comments?
Should we also do more bio information on our story tags. Such as Jane Roe covers real estate for the Daily News, and has written 281 stories on new home sales in her five years on the beat?
Food for thought. I’d love to hear your comments about increasing transparency in reporting and business reporting.
--Marty Steffens
Should we have an editor’s note or behind the scenes note with every story, much as magazines do? Should we do video cam broadcasts of story meetings? Should we list a “bibliography” of resources that we use for every story? I know we usually cite the sources of direct quotes, but should we run the sources for all information used in the story. We are transparent when we run reader comments, but should we not allow screen names, and only real names on reader comments?
Should we also do more bio information on our story tags. Such as Jane Roe covers real estate for the Daily News, and has written 281 stories on new home sales in her five years on the beat?
Food for thought. I’d love to hear your comments about increasing transparency in reporting and business reporting.
--Marty Steffens
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Thoughts on David Halberstam
We mourn today the passing of David Halberstam, a writer who elevated meticulous reporting to inspirational heights.
I had the chance to meet David on Saturday, in Berkeley, where he was the keynote speaker at a conference I was attending on “Where History and Journalism Meet.” Earlier that day, I also had a chance to brush past Kevin Jones, the graduate student who was driving David to Menlo Park on Monday when another car broadsided his, instantly killing David.
At his lecture Saturday night, Halberstam shared with us that he’d just finished marking up the final galleys on his latest book, The Coldest Winter, his long-awaited book on the Korean War. The book was long in gestation. In fact, his newest publisher, Scribner, had first announced a 2002 publication date. Halberstam felt this latest book was his best — better than the 21 he’d written before — and better than his highly acclaimed first book, The Best and The Brightest.
He talked at length about how the two books were connected, and interlacing two of his graceful long fingers to demonstrate, he commented that The Longest Winter’s last chapter neatly dovetails with the first of The Best and The Brightest.
The nearly full house at Arthur Andersen Auditorium heard Halberstam offer advice to young journalist, which I quickly scribbled down to use in my “closing ceremony” speech on the last day of class for my capstone seniors.
He said his secret of success was to always work on your weaknesses. A stronger writer, he said he lacked the reporting skills of others (like Bill Kovach and John Siegenthaler) that he saw around him at the Nashville Tennessean. So he worked to overcome his shyness in making cold calls, learning the “legwork” of journalism. Most basketball players, he said, work on the best parts of their game during the off season. But he said that Michael Jordan, the subject of Halberstam’s 2000 book, Playing for Keeps, spent his summers working on weak points, which made Jordan transcend the game.
He also told students to write with authority, and to focus on the “why” as well as why things “do not happen.” He said the most important interview question was the last: “Who else should I see?”
In his years as a journalist, he feels newspapers have become daily magazines, with an ever-increasing need for analysis. He lauded the “pro-bono” spirit of today’s bright young journalists, who forgo higher paying careers to serve their faith in democracy. But he felt the monetary sacrifice was worth it, as journalists are given the spiritual gift to go to work to “learn every day, questioning every thing.”
But he was also saddened by the power that journalism has lost. Halberstam felt media today is weaker than when he was a NYTimes reporter more than 30 years ago. Mostly, he said, because of the loss of readership in the age of new media disruption. But also, after 9/11, media has lost its punch in a struggle not to appear patriotic. The fall of grace by once-esteemed reporter Judith Miller is “the worst wound in the life of the New York Times,” a wound far worse than the Jayson Blair scandal, he says.
As I left the lecture Saturday night, he put out his hand and introduced himself. I told him I taught at Missouri, and he responded, “Fine school.” I shared a quick story about a couple of our mutual acquaintances, and told him I’d use his words for my students.
And so I will share those word with my class, a last legacy of a great man who died too soon. Was he among the last of The Greatest Generation of Journalists? I hope not.
Marty Steffens
I had the chance to meet David on Saturday, in Berkeley, where he was the keynote speaker at a conference I was attending on “Where History and Journalism Meet.” Earlier that day, I also had a chance to brush past Kevin Jones, the graduate student who was driving David to Menlo Park on Monday when another car broadsided his, instantly killing David.
At his lecture Saturday night, Halberstam shared with us that he’d just finished marking up the final galleys on his latest book, The Coldest Winter, his long-awaited book on the Korean War. The book was long in gestation. In fact, his newest publisher, Scribner, had first announced a 2002 publication date. Halberstam felt this latest book was his best — better than the 21 he’d written before — and better than his highly acclaimed first book, The Best and The Brightest.
He talked at length about how the two books were connected, and interlacing two of his graceful long fingers to demonstrate, he commented that The Longest Winter’s last chapter neatly dovetails with the first of The Best and The Brightest.
The nearly full house at Arthur Andersen Auditorium heard Halberstam offer advice to young journalist, which I quickly scribbled down to use in my “closing ceremony” speech on the last day of class for my capstone seniors.
He said his secret of success was to always work on your weaknesses. A stronger writer, he said he lacked the reporting skills of others (like Bill Kovach and John Siegenthaler) that he saw around him at the Nashville Tennessean. So he worked to overcome his shyness in making cold calls, learning the “legwork” of journalism. Most basketball players, he said, work on the best parts of their game during the off season. But he said that Michael Jordan, the subject of Halberstam’s 2000 book, Playing for Keeps, spent his summers working on weak points, which made Jordan transcend the game.
He also told students to write with authority, and to focus on the “why” as well as why things “do not happen.” He said the most important interview question was the last: “Who else should I see?”
In his years as a journalist, he feels newspapers have become daily magazines, with an ever-increasing need for analysis. He lauded the “pro-bono” spirit of today’s bright young journalists, who forgo higher paying careers to serve their faith in democracy. But he felt the monetary sacrifice was worth it, as journalists are given the spiritual gift to go to work to “learn every day, questioning every thing.”
But he was also saddened by the power that journalism has lost. Halberstam felt media today is weaker than when he was a NYTimes reporter more than 30 years ago. Mostly, he said, because of the loss of readership in the age of new media disruption. But also, after 9/11, media has lost its punch in a struggle not to appear patriotic. The fall of grace by once-esteemed reporter Judith Miller is “the worst wound in the life of the New York Times,” a wound far worse than the Jayson Blair scandal, he says.
As I left the lecture Saturday night, he put out his hand and introduced himself. I told him I taught at Missouri, and he responded, “Fine school.” I shared a quick story about a couple of our mutual acquaintances, and told him I’d use his words for my students.
And so I will share those word with my class, a last legacy of a great man who died too soon. Was he among the last of The Greatest Generation of Journalists? I hope not.
Marty Steffens
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Writing on the birth of Venture Capital
Berkeley, April 21—I’m here today on the campus of the University of California to attend a workshop on how journalists can write history.
One speaker is Spencer Ante of BusinessWeek, who’s writing a biography of Georges Doriot and the birth of the venture capital industry. Doriot is considered to be the father of the U.S. entrepreneurial economy, working mostly in the pivotal post-war era.
Born in France, Doriot came to the U.S. to get an MBA and extended his stay, working for an investment bank and teaching at Harvard Business School. A popular course was one on starting a business.
Over a 40-year teaching career, he would influence thousands of top students, including the founder of FedEx, Fred Smith.
His book will be published later this year by the Harvard Business School Press.
His tips for retelling major business events? Find photos, find correspondence, and don’t overlook libraries like presidential libraries and the Library of Congress that store original documents.
Also, go for tours of the homes in where they lived.
“Go to the places – absorb the light and ambience,” he says. He also got great help and wonderful stories from Doriot family.
What else did he find? That Doriot was an inventor himself, conducing experiments at home as a young student. He appreciated the imagination of others, and sought to fund them.
--Marty Steffens
One speaker is Spencer Ante of BusinessWeek, who’s writing a biography of Georges Doriot and the birth of the venture capital industry. Doriot is considered to be the father of the U.S. entrepreneurial economy, working mostly in the pivotal post-war era.
Born in France, Doriot came to the U.S. to get an MBA and extended his stay, working for an investment bank and teaching at Harvard Business School. A popular course was one on starting a business.
Over a 40-year teaching career, he would influence thousands of top students, including the founder of FedEx, Fred Smith.
His book will be published later this year by the Harvard Business School Press.
His tips for retelling major business events? Find photos, find correspondence, and don’t overlook libraries like presidential libraries and the Library of Congress that store original documents.
Also, go for tours of the homes in where they lived.
“Go to the places – absorb the light and ambience,” he says. He also got great help and wonderful stories from Doriot family.
What else did he find? That Doriot was an inventor himself, conducing experiments at home as a young student. He appreciated the imagination of others, and sought to fund them.
--Marty Steffens
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Update on data from the BEA
This just in from our friends in Washington. It seems that the Bureau of Economic Analysis www.bea.gov will be launching the GDP by state and Metro Statistical Area in early June. The data will allow biz journalists to closely monitor the economic output of their city or state, thanks to this compilation of IRS, Census and state data.
Speaking of Census, the data wonks there keep pouring stats into their relatively new Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics database. Recent additions are Alaska, Georgia, Mississippi and Utah. To access this mappable and searchable database, go to http://lehd.dsd.census.gov/led/
--Marty Steffens
Speaking of Census, the data wonks there keep pouring stats into their relatively new Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics database. Recent additions are Alaska, Georgia, Mississippi and Utah. To access this mappable and searchable database, go to http://lehd.dsd.census.gov/led/
--Marty Steffens
Saturday, March 10, 2007
"Human" side of reporting
Sometimes business reporters on deadline are snared in the phone tree of major businesses or organizations.
A website may help. It's called, Get Human, www.gethuman.com/us and while it's designed for consumer to get through to a live human being to demand better service, it's useful for the media as well. It lists actual phone numbers for companies in the US, plus instructions on how to fool the phone tree into giving you a live human to direct your call. There are also versions for the UK and Canada.
BTW, the site was founded and is copyrighted by Paul English, a Boston area consumer advocate and tech whiz who started it out of frustration.
--Marty Steffens
Monday, March 5, 2007
Getting the message about business reporting
TALLAHASSEE, FL -- Here at the HBCU 2007 Newspaper and Conference Fair, the word is getting out about the good jobs in business reporting.
With an uncertain job market ahead, students were listening when SABEW came calling to talk about business journalism as a profession. And next year, in Baltimore, there will be a half-day workshop at the 10th annual HBCU Newspaper conference.
I did a workshop on what types of campus stories that students could do that are business related. One ideas was writing about the big business of campus fund-raising, and how campus treat this new generation of donors.
After the conference, I got an email from Darryl B. Manning, staff writer for the Lincoln University Clarion, one of the participants in my business writing workshop in Florida. He's doing a story on big donors to Lincoln, an historically black college in Jefferson City, Mo.
Business journalism needs more minority voices. If we don't increase the diversity in business reporting, then we won't make business reporting interested to a wider community. As it is, business is a white guys club, and diversity in business and in the business journalism profession will only make us stronger.
We'll write more on our diversity outreach efforts in the future.
--Marty Steffens
With an uncertain job market ahead, students were listening when SABEW came calling to talk about business journalism as a profession. And next year, in Baltimore, there will be a half-day workshop at the 10th annual HBCU Newspaper conference.
I did a workshop on what types of campus stories that students could do that are business related. One ideas was writing about the big business of campus fund-raising, and how campus treat this new generation of donors.
After the conference, I got an email from Darryl B. Manning, staff writer for the Lincoln University Clarion, one of the participants in my business writing workshop in Florida. He's doing a story on big donors to Lincoln, an historically black college in Jefferson City, Mo.
Business journalism needs more minority voices. If we don't increase the diversity in business reporting, then we won't make business reporting interested to a wider community. As it is, business is a white guys club, and diversity in business and in the business journalism profession will only make us stronger.
We'll write more on our diversity outreach efforts in the future.
--Marty Steffens
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