Did Google get Fortune managing editor  Andrew Serwer to spike an October 19, 2007 blog post discussing the upcoming nuptuals of Google Inc. co-founder Larry Page to girlfriend Lucy Southworth?

Ordinarily such Internet gossip might be easily dismissed.  But in this case the person asking the question is Peter Cohan, a contributor to BloggingStocks.com, which like Fortune is owned by Time Warner.

Cohan says it's clear that Serwer's post was available on line and then it disappeared, banished even from Google's cache.  (He cites as his source another web site, Valleywag.)  "Valleywag now suggests that the wedding could be held on Richard Branson's Necker Island," Cohan says.  He asks readers to comment if they have any knowledge of why the Serwer piece was yanked.  As of November 22, no reader has responded.

        

A panel of four journalists and academics debated the media's ability and responsibilty for forecasting economic trends, such as the ongoing subprime mortgage crisis and the dot-com bubble.

As reported November 2, 2007 in the Harvard Crimson by Athena Y. Jiang, the panelists included  Floyd Norris, chief financial correspondent for The New York Times and Jane B. Quinn, a contributing editor at Newsweek.

According to Jiang, Norris said the media did its job in predicting problems ahead, but the public was in no mood to listen.  "Eventually I got tired of writing how crazy the stock market was," Norris said referring to the high-tech bubble.

        

"It's going to make it very difficult for any Republican to get elected in any national election," says The Wall Street Journal's  Alan Murray of the resentment that has arisen from the economic uncertainty facing much of the nation.

That is one sentiment Murray expressed during an interview with Frank MacEachern of the Stamford (CT) Times, during an interview prior to Murray's October 22, 2007 before the Stamford World Affairs Forum.  Murray's speech was hosted by Pitney Bowes Inc., at the Pitney Bowes global headquarters, MacEachern reported.

The Times reports that Murray believes "America's direction in economic affairs is now in the hands of Democrats who are increasingly taking a skeptical look at globalization and free trade."

        

As Benjamin Disraeli, the witty British statesman and author, said in his political novel Coningsby in 1844, “Almost everything that is great has been done by youth.”

The TJFR Business News Reporter, in its sixth annual celebration of youth, thinks this could apply to business and financial journalism as well -- and again has selected 30 top journalists under the age of 30 to prove it.  Some names are familiar to our readers, having been mentioned in these pages before; others will be new.  All have made outstanding strides in their careers and hold the promise of becoming increasingly influential in the profession.

The 1990 and 1991 30 Under 30 lists saw fewer young, unseasoned and untested reporters being hired by major news organizations.  The trend continues this year, too.  Only three of the recognition winners this year are under the age of 26 -- compared with seven last year and 20 on our original list in 1987.  Five members of the Class of 1992 are 26; 14 members are 27 or 28, and the remainder are 29.

Nevertheless, the competition for inclusion was very stiff.  A search of our own computerized data bases turned up well over 100 potential candidates under the age of 30.  Interviews with editors and bureau chiefs across the country helped us trim the list to 40 outstanding candidates.  The final 30 were chosen on the basis of age -- those under 25 were given greater weight than those older, and extra consideration was also given to those with editorial responsibilities in addition to reporting and writing duties.  Other criteria included the importance of their beats, prominence of their publications, prizes and awards won and past work that has attracted our attention.

Some news organizations are represented here repeatedly -- The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, and Business Week.  That’s because these publications are among the nation’s most respected and because they make it a goal to hire and nurture young talent.

For the second consecutive year, Ricardo Sookdeo, 24, of Fortune, is the youngest member of the class.  Jonathan Clements, 29, of the Journal, is the oldest, just making it under the wire by two days -- he turns 30 on January 2, 1993.  (Anyone still 29 in this calendar year was eligible.) 

Of the 30 finalists, 17 were recognition winners last year.

None of the Class of 1992 was on the original list five years ago.  But with the publication of this list, three journalists -- Richard Meyer of Financial World, Rick Wartzman of the Journal, and Alan Deutschman of Fortune -- have made the list five consecutive years.  This is the fourth year for Kelli Arena of Cable News Network, who was named in 1991 as well as in 1988 and 1989.  And Martha E. Mangelsdorf is on the list for the third time, having been named last year and in 1988. 

Other repeat winners from last year are Keith Bradsher of The New York Times, Joël Glenn Brenner of the Washington Post, the Journal’s Mr. Clements, Lucinda Harper of the Journal, Mark Landler of Business Week, Jonathan Moses of the WSJ, Ellen Neuborne of USA Today, Christopher Palmeri of Forbes, Sasha Salama of CNBC, Stephanie Strom of The New York Times, and Betty Wong of Reuters.

Many of these people had big years in 1992.  Ms. Arena, for example, was promoted to news editor within CNN’s business unit, one of the highest-ranking posts there.  Mr. Landler was wooed by the Journal to write its prestigious Advertising column, but turned the offer down.  And Ms. Brenner inked a book contract to expand upon her profile of the Mars family and their candy empire.

While we don’t mistrust those over the age of 29, we agree with another British statesman and political writer, Edmund Burke, who wrote in the 18th Century, that “age must submit to be taught by youth.”  We all stand to learn something from these young scribes’ abilities, initiative, energy and enthusiasm for tackling something new or different.

See Also:

   Betty Wong's NewsBios Homepage (2007)

        

   Lawrence Ingrassia, twice the London bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal, takes charge of the paper’s third section, “Money & Investing.”

    Mr. Ingrassia replaces “Money & Investing” Editor Glynn Mapes, who ran the section for more than five years — longer than usual for that position — and who becomes an assistant managing editor.
    
    Mr. Ingrassia reports to Deputy Managing Editor Daniel Hertzberg.

    The “Money & Investing” section has 37 reporters and editors.

    Mr. Ingrassia, 46, worked on “Millennium,” a special report that ran Jan. 11, since he joined the New York headquarters in August 1998 after leaving London. He says he had hoped to become a section editor when he joined New York, and the “Money & Investing” job was the first one that opened. “The (section) is already very good, and the key is to provide a good mix of features and news,” he says.

    Mr. Ingrassia is aware of how important the section is to the success of the paper. “Everything flows through it,” he says. “That’s our reason for being in the first place, but we’re so much broader than that.”

    Mr. Mapes, 59, also a former London bureau chief, and “Page One” editor for 13 years, takes over most of the responsibilities of James Pensiero, 46, who will devote his attention to an electronic pagination project during the next year. Mr. Mapes says now he focuses on “mainly administrative stuff,” such as personnel transfers and expense accounts. “Every time I turn around, there is something new I didn’t know I was responsible for.” He reports to Managing Editor Paul E. Steiger.

    Mr. Mapes was ready for a change after his longer-than-usual tenure as “Money & Investing” editor, a post that usually lasts three or four years. “I’ve been in it for five years (since May 1993) and it was time to do something else, and the managing editor asked me to do (the new job),” says Mr. Mapes, who has been with the Journal since 1965.

    He says his proudest accomplishments as editor were getting his reporters’ stories onto page one, increasing coverage of world markets and starting coverage of Internet investing. He says he will miss working with the younger reporters on the section. “(They’re) a lot of fun.”

     Douglas Sease, 48, will continue in his role as deputy editor for “Money & Investing.” Randall Smith, 48, section news editor, who took that position in 1995, returns to reporting, replacing Anita Raghavan, 34, who had been covering securities and now joins the London bureau in a new post covering world financial markets. She reports to Bureau Chief Gregory Steinmetz.

    “Money & Investing” reporter Michael Siconolfi, 42, who has been covering securities, replaces Mr. Smith as news editor, and the latter will report to him. Mr. Siconolfi will be responsible for “Heard on the Street,” “Inside Track,” brokerages, the securities industry and Internet investing. Mr. Siconolfi’s replacement has not been named.

    Mr. Siconolfi and Mr. Smith report to Mr. Ingrassia. -30-



See Also:

Lawrence Ingrassia's NewsBios Homepage (2007)

© 1999 TJFR Group, Inc.  All rights reserved.

        

    As a 24-year-old budding business reporter, Karen W. Arenson recalls there were virtually no women business editors to emulate.  That was in 1975.  Today, Ms. Arenson, Sunday business-section editor for The New York Times, need look no further than the mirror to find a role model for other women journalists.

    Ms. Arenson is one of a small, select group of women at the uppermost rungs of news management who are helping to shape business journalism in this country.  To get to their current posts, they have had to overcome all the professional and personal hurdles faced by their male counterparts, and then some.   

    By this publication’s count, there are at least 14 leading journalists who deserve membership in TJFR’s Top Women in Business News club.   The admissions criteria are tough.

     For starters, members of this elite group must already have obtained positions of stature at the largest, most-competitive and most- influential business-news organizations in the country.  Specifically, all the members were selected from daily news-papers in the top 25 markets, large-circulation business and news magazines, and national business-news television programs.

    As a result, some highly regarded women business editors — such as Sandra Duerr at the (Louisville) Courier-Journal; Lynne Enders Glaser at the Fresno Bee; Cheryl M. Hall at the Dallas Morning News; Janet Lowe at the San Diego Tribune, and Susan C. Thomson at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch — were eliminated from consideration. 

    Similarly, occupying a high position on a business-news masthead didn’t necessarily warrant inclusion on TJFR’s Top Women in Business News list.   Those selected were required to have substantial authority over the broad direction of news coverage and staffing.  In many instances, they also control the editorial purse strings.
 
    This too led to the elimination of some well-respected reporters, writers, bureau chiefs and editors.  Ann Morrison, assistant managing editor at Fortune, doesn’t have hiring and firing authority and thus wasn’t included. Ditto for Anita Schrodt, assistant managing editor at The Journal of Commerce.  Carol Loomis at Fortune,  Susan Lee at Forbes, and Laura Landro at The Wall Street Journal didn’t qualify for membership — despite their strong credentials — because they aren’t charged with the direct supervision of personnel.  Women bureau chiefs, while influential, were excluded because their authority extends to only a segment of the overall news coverage.

    The high caliber of the women who weren’t chosen is perhaps one of the best testaments to the accomplishments of those who were.  As a group, the 14 women in TJFR’s  1988 listing of the Top Women in Business News are talented, versatile and experienced journalists who are also savvy about the office politicking and industry networking that is a prerequisite to landing top jobs in any profession. 

    These women attained their powerful positions based on accomplishments that related first and foremost to their skill, not their gender.  Linda O’Bryon, executive editor and co-anchor of the Nightly Business Report, helped create the weekday television business-news program that she now supervises.  Karen Zehring, who has won praise by many as a female journalistic version of Malcolm Forbes, founded, publishes and edits Corporate Finance.  Eve Krzyzanowski, vice president of news programming for Financial News Network, supervises that cable television network’s entire news operation and has been a major force behind its growth and success.

    Nine of the 14 women are still in their 30’s, suggesting that their reign near the top of business-journalism has only just begun.  Each of the women say their jobs require long hours and consequently, some concede, understanding families.  When U.S. News & World Report business editor Mary Lord relocated from Tokyo to Washington to accept her current job, she left behind her husband, a TV correspondent.  The couple maintains a long-distance marriage.

    Despite the job demands, a majority of these top journalists have also found time for marriage and at least six have children.  Most of the mothers in the group say they took only a few weeks maternity leave before returning to work.

    One professional characteristic common to many of the women is the desire to mesh their editing and administrative responsibilities with reporting.  Kathryn M. Welling, managing editor of Barron’s and Karen Elliott House, foreign editor of the Wall Street Journal each have maintained strong reputations as reporters, even as they juggle their editing responsibilities.  Ms. O’Bryon is also well regarded for her talents as a news anchor.

    Perhaps the most important professional characteristic these women share is that of being a trailblazer — paving the way for their journalism sisters to enter top-level management positions in the future.  At present, they stand out for their scarcity.  But if those women who are now climbing in the ranks do as well as these 14, come 1998 there shouldn’t be a need to write a story highlighting the select few.   -30-


See Also:

Women Exerting More Influence in Business Journalism (2007)

© 1988 TJFR Group, Inc.  All rights reserved.