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business reporter: A reporter that focuses on business-related beats, sometimes assigned by industry or company.

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Ask A Pro Archive

We have asked dozens of journalists at the top of their profession to explain what they do and how they got there. Here is a collection of our conversations with them, sorted by department.

  • business editor
    • Bob Shallit
      Inspired by his work at his high school newspaper, Shallit lucked into business and never left. Business stories shouldn't be boring, he says. Not if they're written and reported right.
    • Vindu Goel
      Business and money affect everyone, which is why Vindu Goel enjoys his job as deputy business editor in San Jose so much: relevance.
  • business reporter
    • S. Mitra Kalita
      Business journalism is interesting -- even in high school. Kalita gives tips on student coverage of business issues -- and tells how she does her daily job.
  • cartoonist
    • Aaron McGruder
      The creator of this popular — and edgy — comic strip talks about the strip and its creation in this video Ask a Pro.
  • city/metro editor
    • Marilyn Garateix
      As a student journalist, Garateix liked making decisions on how to produce a newspaper, from beginning to end. That's why she worked to become an editor.
    • Nora Lopez
      After covering courts and police for several years, Lopez was offered a job as a city editor. Now she understands all the fuss: editing, mentoring, coddling, scolding and negotiating. Most of all, she juggles to make the stories the best they can be.
    • Tiffany Alexander
      Despite being born legally blind, Alexander was drawn to the written word. She now leads coverage of education, religion and the obituaries at The Denver Post.
    • Yvonne Dennis
      From working on the city desk of the feisty Philadelphia Daily News, Yvonne Dennis knows plenty about editing reporters and doing it gently.
  • columnist
    • Alice Demetrius Stock
      A love of writing has taken Stock to almost every corner of the newsroom -- and allowed her to write about what interests her. The key is to write, write, write, she says -- even if it's for free.
    • Ana Menendez
      Columnist Ana Menendez of The Miami Herald "challenges the establishment and speaks for the poor."
    • Columnist
      Dave Lieber, a Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram columnist, says journalists must tell stories, not simply write rote articles.
    • Gary Massaro
      A local columnist in Denver, Massaro has to come up with unique column ideas several times a week. How does he juggle it all? How does he get people to talk to him?
    • O. Ricardo Pimentel
      A longtime reporter and editor, Pimentel now is editorial columnist in Phoenix, where he writes columns with a Latino point of view.
    • Tracey O'Shaughnessy
      This columnist says journalism is the ultimate outlet for the relentlessly curious. And columns are even better.
  • copy chief
    • John McIntyre
      As assistant managing editor for the copy desk at The Sun, this former high school journalist's job is to make sure stories are fit for readers' eyes.
  • design editor
    • Debra Leithauser
      As lead designer, she is responsible for the group's full-page, one-subject pages, including the teen pages.
    • Monica Moses
      Moses finds that the newsroom has the same energy as a good party -- and is just as fun to be at.
    • Pankaj Paul
      Being a leader is difficult because you succeed through helping others do their best. Paul answers questions about leadership and what an aspiring editor needs to know.
  • designer
    • Eric Hegedus
      Hegedus, a page designer for The Philadelphia Inquirer says that being a journalist has helped him meet countless interesting people and given him a wonderful creative outlet.
  • editor
    • Bill Keller
      New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller answers questions about his job from some Minnesota student journalists.
    • David Ng
      Although his job is stressful, as assistant managing editor/production (aka the person who is responsible for getting the paper out) he says he's still having a blast and willing to prove himself evey day.
    • Eric Newhouse
      Newhouse won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism for his series on how alcohol affects his community. Series, he says, are much harder to write than daily stories.
  • editorial cartoonist
    • Dwane Powell
      This longtime cartoonist sees himself as a journalist who uses India ink and Strathmore drawing paper instead of words.
  • editorial page editor
    • Arnold Garcia
      Arnold Garcia considered law school for a career, but after "falling into" newspapers, he loved it. He still does.
    • Jane Healy
      Editorial Page Editor Jane Healy of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel wrote a series of editorials on how the laws and policies in Florida for managing growth were a sham.
  • editorial writer
    • Brian Colligan
      Colligan's love of writing and of news and a need to inform others of events drove him into journalism, but his ability to form an opinion based on facts drove him to editorial page.
  • education reporter
    • Ana Valle-Greene
      Valle-Greene finds education reporting exciting because it touches on important issues -- children, learning, social issues, success stories and tragedies.
    • Inara Verzemnieks
      As a youth reporter Verzemnieks writes about reading, raves and respect for teens (or the lack of it).
    • Patrick Healy
      Healy loves storytelling. And he decided what he wanted to cover early: education. These two skills -- and the willingness to work hard at both -- landed him a job at a prestigious metro daily in one of the biggest university towns there is.
  • feature writer
  • features editor
    • Features Editor
      Kim Willis, features editor for USA Today, likes that she can "really shape the way a newspaper covers its community."
    • Jan Tuckwood
      Tuckwood always thought journalism was fun, and now that she is a journalist, she's in charge of the look of the paper and editor of all its "fun sections."
    • Wendy Zang
      Working with teen-agers isn't what she thought she'd be doing when she studied journalism in college, but that's just what Wendy Zang does every week for the Voices section.
  • future of journalism
    • 20 Questions A Journalist Should Ask About Poll Results
      Two polling experts give 20 questions journalists should ask about polls.
    • Adam Westbrook
      For a new generation of journalists, the ongoing journalism revolution spells opportunity. Adam Westbrook, a free-lance journalist from London, explains exactly how.
    • Brian Stelter
      Changes are forcing colleges and universities to rethink what a journalism education should look like.
    • Ian Bogost
      Professor Ian Bogost of Georgia Tech says that journalism is hardly dying; in fact, it’s possible that it couldn’t be killed. The idea of informing and educating a public, such that they can make independent decisions, is something that is so endemic of a democracy, that we would have to take down the democracy to kill it. Instead, what’s changing is the way that we communicate with one another.”
    • Journalist and scholar
      Journalist and scholar Dan Gillmor tells how he would run a journalism school in today's media environment.
    • Steve Buttry
      Steve Buttry, Information Content Conductor at Gazette Communications in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, explains how to break and gather news on Twitter.
    • The journalism future is here and now in our classrooms
      2009's National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year Paul Kandell of Palo Alto (Calif.) High School discusses journalism's future.
  • graphic artist
    • Jason Terrell
      A longtime graphic artist, Terrell says that artistic sense and journalistic accuracy can exist in harmony -- and depending on the project, one can take precedence over the other. It's a matter of balance and judgment.
  • investigative reporter
    • Dan Keating
      Keating uses computer databases and other electronic methods to do investigative journalism that would otherwise be impossible. And it's won him a Pulitzer.
    • Judy Thomas
      As a projects reporter, Thomas may take weeks or months to write a story. Frequency isn't as important as the fact that her stories "move people and right wrongs," she says.
  • journalism professor
    • Tony Rogers
      Tony Rogers asks fellow journalism professors how they deal with the daily gloom and doom of the industry with the young, fresh faces they see every day.
  • managing editor
    • Gary Graham
      As managing editor, the whole newsroom is Graham's responsibility, from reporters to graphics to budgets. His job that the paper be accurate, well-edited and worth reading.
  • news executive
    • Bryan Monroe
      Now assistant vice president/news for Knight Ridder, Monroe's rise through the company is testament to his skills -- and his commitment to newspapers. He believes they have soul.
  • ombudsman/public editor
    • John X. Miller
      Newspapers are changing, and one of those changes is to be more receptive to their readers. John X. Miller's role of public editor is to bring a voice to people who haven't always had one in the newsroom.
  • online producer
    • Jennifer Montgomery
      This online worker found that working as a reporter and editor first made her a better online journalist.
    • Ronald Dupont Jr.
      Now head of an Internet department, Dupont got interested in journalism long before he got online. If you want to be an online journalist, he says, learn to be a regular journalist first.
    • William Chang
      As an online editor for The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization, Chang often has his finger on the pulse of news as it's happening. Racing the clock and working with a team to get information online is his favorite part of the job.
  • photo chief
    • Clyde Mueller
      Clyde Mueller wasn't sure he wanted to be a photographer -- he was going to be a teacher. In the years since trying it out, he has become the photo director of the paper in New Mexico's capital and a leader in his profession.
  • photographer
    • Craig Sailor
      As a photojournalist, Craig Sailor has traveled and photographed from the jungles of Guatemala to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
    • Elizabeth Flores-Joles
      A native of New Mexico, Flores-Joles followed her heart into photography and can't imagine doing anything else.
    • J. Conrad Williams
      After buying a camera to shoot some family photos, Williams got hooked and realized what he wanted to be: a photojournalist. He walked away from his area of study to pursue his dream and hasn't regretted it.
    • John Beale
      As a photojournalist, Beale is more interested in the content of a photo and the story it tells than any technology he happened to use to get it.
    • Suzanne Kreiter
      Suzanne Kreiter, a photographer for The Boston Globe, says she's a modern-day cave painter -- and we need those.
  • recruiter
    • Joe Grimm
      Although he loves people and news, Joe Grimm never envisioned himself hiring journalists for a living. But creative enterprises like newspapers need creative people doing the hiring and he was it.
  • reporter
    • Andrea Elliott
      Elliott of The New York Times profiled a New York imam to show what it's like to be Muslim in America.
    • Anne Hull
      Anne Hull of The Washington Post goes where politicians don't -- into homes and, maybe, heads of those touched by the Iraq war.
    • Barbara Brotman
      Barbara Brotman of the Chicago Tribune looked at the final months of life of one man and found a universal tale.
    • C.J. Chivers
      Chivers of The New York Times often covers wars. His mission is to show it to readers, with all its implications, both noble and ugly.
    • Christine Evans
      Although she didn't know what she wanted to do when she graduated, Christine Evans liked researching and talking to people -- the ideal reporter.
    • Erica Pippins
      Pippins had a different career in mind when she went to college, but once she started writing for the newspaper, she found her true passion. Now a reporter in South Carolina, she meets new people, learns new things and reaches for more -- every day.
    • Giselle Goodman
      After starting as a newsroom secretary and taking chances, Goodman got a job as a reporter. Now she's responsible for writing about everything in a town in Maine. If it happens, she covers it.
    • James Bruggers
      Inspired his parents to help the world and by national events to enter journalism, this reporter combined his passions into an ideal job -- environment writer.
    • Jeff Mays
      Although not long out of school, Jeff Mays is responsible for covering three towns for a major metro daily. Anything that happens there is his responsibility. And he loves it.
    • Mae Cheng
      Patience, curiosity and the ability to listen to America's newcomers has helped Mae Cheng succeed on the immigration beat in immigrant-rich New York.
    • Robyn Adams
      Robyn Adams, a reporter for the Republican-American in Waterbury, Conn., worked her way up from clerk typist at the paper.

      Along the way, she saw what was happening to her city -- street by street, abandoned house by abandoned house -- it was becoming blighted, full of trash and nothing was being done.

      When editors asked Adams what project she would like to work on, documenting and doing something about this urban blight was the first thing she thought of.

    • Rosa Maria Santana
      Now a reporter in Cleveland, Santana believes that hard work and reading have been key to her award-winning success.
    • Ta Brant
      Brant covers police and crime in a state full of quirky, interesting people who she gets to talk to every day.
  • sports editor
    • Brian Wong
      Wong was an award-winning high school sports journalist before working his way up to the sports copy desk in San Diego.
  • sports reporter
    • Karen Wall
      After realizing she had a talent with words, she found a niche as a copy editor/editor for high school sports at the Asbury Park Press in Neptune, N.J. Now they even pay her to write about her fishing trips.
    • Lori Nickel
      Nickel covers college basketball and professional football.
    • Mike Sielski
      This lover of sports and writing says it's harder to cover high school sports than college or pro games: you have to keep your own stats, block out distractions -- and there's no instant replay!
  • writing coach
    • Mary Ann Hogan
      Some fear the future of journalism, but writing coach Mary Ann Hogan looks forward and sees that news will always be with us.