Terri Thompson

Business and financial reporting is more complicated than ever, with corporate mergers and acquisitions, linked global economies and a stock market vulnerable to Internet start-ups and shut-downs. Journalists ­ often without advanced degrees in the field ­ must analyze financial models, earnings reports, and business plans. And they must navigate the macro- and microeconomics of health care, consider labor and workplace issues and make sense of the volumes of electronic data now available to them.

A new book, Writing About Business: The New Columbia Knight-Bagehot Guide to Economics and Business Journalism, Columbia University Press draws on the experiences of 40 of the nation's finest journalists and serves as a comprehensive guide to writing about business and economics. The book's contributors -- all alumni of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism -- include reporters and editors from the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Week and Barron's, as well as business executives and consultants, academics and authors.

"This guide should help journalists, as well as students of business and public relations, feel more confident in their writing," said Terri Thompson, editor of the book and director of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship. "The essays were written by dozens of journalists, many of the best practitioners of the craft, in the belief that no single journalist could have written it all because no one has ever done it all or, at least, done it all well." In her 20 years as a business journalist, Thompson has reported, written and/or edited for such publications as Business Week, US News & World Report, Institutional Investor and Lear's, and is the author of Biz Kid's Guide to Success: Money-Making Ideas for Young Entrepreneurs.

The book begins with an overview of the basic concepts of macroeconomics, microeconomics, financial markets and international economics and trade before providing practical reporting tips, such as how to use statistics, understanding what the government has in its files, conducting live interviews and using electronic data to generate company stories. Suggestions for specific investigative techniques and strategies for covering personal finance, health care, the environment, labor and workplace issues, media and entertainment businesses, technology and telecommunications, real estate and urban development conclude the book.

The publication of Writing About Business coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship, founded at Columbia by Stephen B. Shepard, editor-in-chief of Business Week, Soma Golden Behr, assistant managing editor, The New York Times, and former Dean of the Journalism School Elie Abel. Administered by the Graduate School of Journalism, the Fellowship is the only nine-month-long academic mid-career program for journalists exclusively devoted to the study of business and economics. During the past 25 years, more than 200 accomplished journalists have completed the program and many hold key positions in U.S. newsrooms.

Writing About Business: The New Columbia Knight-Bagehot Guide to Economics and Business Journalism, edited by Terri Thompson ($27.50 in paperback; ISBN 0-231-118535-X) is available from on-line and regular bookstores, from Columbia University Press or by calling 800-944-8648.

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