Tips for engaging business journalism students

In this episode, hosted by Jenna Miller, Business journalism professors Karen Blumenthal, Andrew Cassel and Keith Herndon share their tips for engaging students in class. These instructors explain the creative way they encourage students to interact with businesses they don’t already have a connection to and the importance of reading other business stories, especially in their own communities. They originally shared these tips during Reynolds Week 2016.

An introduction to financial statements

The How to Cover Money podcast is back with Jenna Miller as this episode’s host. W.P. Carey School of Business professor Philip Drake and Bloomberg's Tom Contiliano introduce business reporters to the art of reading financial statements. They share some of their tips for using those statements to investigate a company’s performance, past transactions, and cash flow to understand how well a company is really doing.

Finding and using census data in your stories

In this episode, hosted by Megan Calcote, Brandon Quester and Evan Wyloge of the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting share their tips for finding and using census data. Wyloge and Quester share their experiences searching through large datasets and what they have found to be more useful to drill down the numbers to your local area. They also share the websites and reports they find to be the most useful for story inspiration. They originally shared these tips during Reynolds Week 2016.
To read the AZCIR's four-part investigation on hazardous chemicals, click below:
Poor oversight cited in Texas ammonium nitrate blast mirrored in Arizona
U.S. oversight of ammonium nitrate insufficient, GAO says
2.8 million Arizonans live within vulnerable zones from toxic chemical leaks
Federal report recommends overhaul of U.S. chemical safety oversight

Finding regional employment data

In this episode, host Megan Calcote highlights some of the best tips from the Reynolds Center presentation at SABEW 2015 with University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes. Grimes highlights the importance of regional data in national data series and where some of the best data sets are located. He explains how some of the surveys work and recommends when is the best time to look at those data sets. The conversation includes the importance of understanding sample sizes and how to dig deeper into outliers and large changes that appear over time.
To access some of the reports and surveys Grimes recommends during the podcast, click below:
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Current Employment Statistics Survey (CES)
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW)

More tips for building a winning business investigation

In this podcast hosted by Megan Calcote, Glenn Hall, Executive Editor at the Washington Post, shares more tips for creating winning business investigations. He urges writers to break up long-form articles into short, easily digested pieces; beware the extreme anecdote; and employ videos, graphics and slideshows. Hall's tips were originally shared during Reynolds Week 2016.

Building winning business investigations

In this episode, hosted by Megan Calcote, Glenn Hall, Executive Editor at the Washington Post shares his tips for creating winning business investigations. In addition to discussing the importance of waving data into your story, Hall shares the other key elements that make a business investigation story stand out for readers. He originally shared these tips at Reynolds Week 2016.

Covering the marijuana industry, part 3

In the third and final part of our conversation on covering the legal marijuana industry, Ricardo Baca, editor of The Denver Post’s website The Cannabist; and Kevin Dale, executive editor of Arizona PBS’s Cronkite News, share their insights from covering the industry in Colorado. Megan Calcote hosts this episode highlighting the journalists’ experience testing the potency of edibles and calling out the brands that failed to meet their own advertised standards. They also discuss the shift in public opinion and how local control in Colorado has played out since legalization.
 
For more information about investigations into product potency or to learn about chemical and pesticide testing in marijuana, visit the stories below.
Edibles’ THC claims versus lab tests reveal big discrepancies
THC levels in edibles: See the lab tests
On testing THC in edibles: The story behind our pot report
Video: Contaminated marijuana sold at Oregon dispensaries

The business of the marijuana industry, part 2

In part two of covering the legal marijuana industry, host Megan Calcote highlights tips from Ricardo Baca and Kevin Dale that were presented during Reynolds Week 2016. Their discussion provides insights on seasonal sales trends, including the impact of tourism and the black market on the cannabis business in Colorado, and the complexities of an industry that is local at the state level but illegal federally.
Baca is the editor of The Denver Post’s website The Cannabist and Dale is the executive editor of Arizona PBS’s Cronkite News, who also directed pot coverage as a top editor at the Post. 
More information regarding the lawsuits discussed during the podcast can be found at the links below:
Judge tosses Denver marijuana credit union's suit for federal approval
Fourth Corner intensifies its fight to be first marijuana credit union

Covering the business of pot

In this episode of the How to Cover Money podcast, Megan Calcote reviews some of the tips on covering the legal marijuana industry that was originally shared at Reynolds Week 2016. The tips include the importance of highlighting the industry from a business perspective, including consumer trends, new businesses, and ancillary services, and the impact on the local community. These tips come from Ricardo Baca, editor of The Denver Post’s website The Cannabist; and Kevin Dale, executive editor of Arizona PBS’s Cronkite News, who directed pot coverage as a top editor at the Post.

Generating story ideas

Megan Calcote reviews some of the best tips for generating local story ideas by Jennifer Conlin, New York Times contributor and founder of Creative Voice. Conlin emphasizes the value of fresh perspectives, some observations she has made in her reporting and the importance of trusting your own instincts. Conlin originally shared these tips at SABEW 2015 during a session on covering regional economics.