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Degree and Year: BJ '97 (News-Editorial) Company: Nashville Business Journal Company Web Site: http://nashville.bizjournals.com/ Title: Editor City and State: Nashville, Tenn.
I lead a newsroom of 11 - five reporters, two editors, a designer, a photographer and a research director - that produces a local business weekly. Describe your publication. The Nashville Business Journal is a local business weekly with paid circulation of more than 6,000 and weekly readership of about 30,000. It is aimed at business owners and executives with an average income of $219,000 and an average net worth of $1.2 million. We also produce daily news via the Web site and an e-mail service. It is part of American City Business Journals, a national company that owns 41 business weeklies and several other specialty publications. How did you get your job? After graduating from Mizzou, I moved to Cincinnati to be a reporter at the Business Courier there, first covering retail and the courts, then banking/finance, investing and macroeconomic issues. Starting in December 1999, I began editing the Portfolio section of the Courier. In August 2002, I moved to Nashville to be managing editor of the Business Journal. When the former editor left in 2003, I took over. What makes you good at your job? Most importantly, I love the work we do and the corner of the market we occupy. It lets us talk to interesting people every day and helps our readers grow their businesses. I'm a good organizer who can look at a story both from the trenches and from the air and I'm growing each day as a manager and motivator. What do you continuously work on? Finding and taking care of the little flaws that will continue to improve the Business Journal, whether it's a design element, our writing style or the types of stories we present to our readers. My main aim these days is to push the people I work with to do things just a little better than they did them last week. What has been your greatest professional achievement? Planning and preparing to be an editor. Starting in 1999, I worked with my editors in Cincinnati, Rob Daumeyer and Richard Curtis, to build my skills and take on more responsibilities. I began editing the five-page Portfolio section each week, pitched in on planning and editing special publications and filled in as ME when Richard went on vacation. By the time the Nashville ME job opened, I was well prepared. Where would you most like to work and why? If I were to leave the American City Business Journal format, it would be for the Economist Group. I've been an avid reader of the Economist itself for more than a decade and interned at the company's Business Central Europe pub in 1996. It's the kind of authoritative, well-written journalism I'd like to be responsible for. What are your next career steps? (new areas, professional growth, promotion) Five months ago, it would have been to be editor of a business journal. Now, I'm really looking to grow as an editor, improve the quality of the Nashville Business Journal and develop and mentor my staff as I was mentored in Cincinnati. I expect to stay in my current position for many years, building a top-notch staff and a reputation as a great place to work. What did you want to be as a kid? I have long been interested in architecture and how cities are built and function. I wanted to be an architect for a long time, but bailed when getting my butt kicked by pre-calculus in high school wasn't a lot of fun. If I left journalism, I would either teach history or study/work in urban planning. Best professional lesson learned at the J-School? Be reliable. Others are counting on you to follow through on your commitments. 
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| Revised: 20 April 2007. Copyright © 2008 The Curators of the University of Missouri | Contact the J-School | |
