We Mean Business

Tips for engaging business journalism students

Business journalism professors Karen Blumenthal, Andrew Cassel and Keith Herndon share their tips for engaging students in class. They originally shared these tips during Reynolds Week 2016. Jenna Miller hosts this episode.

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

Inside the award-winning investigation “Fish Slavery”

In this episode, hosted by Megan Calcote, Katherine Fitzgerald and Eddie Keller interview Robin McDowell and Martha Mendoza of the Associated Press about their 2015 Barlett and Steele Gold award-winning investigation “Fish Slavery.” McDowell and Mendoza explain what sparked this investigation, some of the decisions they had to make to protect their sources before publication, and what it took to conduct award-winning work.

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)

Behind the award-winning investigation "Unchecked Care"

In this episode, Katherine Fitzgerlad and Eddie Keller interview Christopher Serres and Glenn Howatt of the Minneapolis Star Tribune about their award-winning investigation “Unchecked Care.” Their investigation exposed issues in the home care industry, including inadequate care, inadequate training for aides, and aggressive sales tactics by for-profit franchises. Serres and Keller give advice to new reporters on working with data and where to get started.
“Unchecked Care” won the Silver Award in the 2015 Barlett and Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism. Megan Calcote is the host of the How to Cover Money series. Check out the full four-part series:
Sick, frail and abandoned by home care firms
Care aides get little to no training for life-and-death tasks
The marketing of home care shifts into high gear
Minnesota falters in fight against home care fraud

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.

Inside the award-winning investigation, Dying for Care

In this episode, host Megan Calcote shares a conversation Katherine Fitzgerald and Eddie Keller had with Pat Beall of The Palm Beach Post. Her award-winning investigation, Dying for Care, won the 2015 Bronze Award in the Barlett and Steele Awards for the best in investigative business journalism. Beall shares some of her advice for young journalists, what sparked this investigation, and why she enjoys her work.

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