Thursday, November 29, 2007
Editing business news
I should put a question mark in the title, because I really don't know how to edit business news. I'm at work, having finished looking at a business story (a different version of the one that's in the link) and a business column. And I'm thinking it's a bad thing that most of the stories' terminology is totally foreign to me. So, my question is: How do you edit a story when you really have no clue about the subject? I wish I knew the answer. Common terms from the linked story include "cash equivalents," "gross margin" and "investment gains." I'm clueless as to what I'm dealing with when I come across those phrases, and I'm kind of wondering if most people who are reading the business page understand them. Typically I skirt along, correcting minor stuff and hoping none of the terminology is off. Thank god this was a wire story. But if I come across something I really just can't decipher, I ask my bosses. Maybe something like a business copy desk should be created, similar to the sports desk. Then again, who has money to do that in this industry, especially when business pages are dwindling anyway.
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You raise an excellent point.
One suggestion, although it's not a quick fix, is to look at various reporting texts. Sometimes there are sections or, if you're lucky, chapters on business reporting.
Here's a page of online resources: http://jclass.umd.edu/cars/Special/SABEW2004.htm . Warning. Some of these links are outdated. I know because a couple of them go to the book our dean, Chris Callahan, wrote and that I updated this past summer. The links are way old. I'll get you copies of those pages when I return from St. Louis.
The Society for Business Editors and Writers might have something to help: http://www.sabew.com/news/home.htm.
Here are three from one of those pages: New York Times glossary of financial terms:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/glossary/bfglosa.htm
Yahoo glossary of financial terms: http://biz.yahoo.com/f/g/
Bankruptcy.com – glossary: http://www.bankruptcydata.com/Glossary.htm
And be sure to check the New York Times Cybernavigator site we used toward the beginning of class.
Good luck.
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