Chris Roush presents "Organizing Your Class" during the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism's annual Business Journalism Week, Jan. 2, 2014. Roush is the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Scholar in business journalism and the founding director of the Carolina Business News Initiative at the University of North Carolina. The annual event features two concurrent seminars, Business Journalism Professors and Strictly Financials for journalists. For more information about business journalism training, please visit http://businessjournalism.org.

1. Organizing your Class
Chris Roush
Croush@email.unc.edu
Jan. 2, 2014
Business Journalism Professors Seminar

2. Outside the classroom
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Let’s not kid ourselves – we’re not going
to teach students everything they need
to know.
Students have told me that some of the
best ways they learned about the
importance of business reporting was
when they engaged in real-life
experiences.

3. Projects
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“Business reporting” classes can easily
contain a final project, or some sort of other
project.
Can count for 20% or 30% of a student’s
grade.
These projects can run a wide gamut of ideas
and requirements.
But each of them emphasizes what it’s like to
be a business reporter.

4. The major article

5. Project idea No. 1
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If there are a number of
publicly traded companies
within an hour of your
campus, consider compiling a
list of them.
Require each student to pick
one of these companies.
Will have to write magazinelength article about the
company by the end of the
semester.

6. Project idea No. 1
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Can be effective if your
class is focusing on
reading SEC filings and
trying to find news.
Students can be writing
assignments throughout
the semester on their
final project company.
Forces students to
interact with IR and PR
staff.

7. Project idea No. 1
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Many students will get the
opportunity to interview the
CEO or other high-ranking
officials.
Forced to become
knowledgeable about a
company that may have
technical aspects.
And they will need to come
up with a good story angle
focused on strategy or
some other corporate issue.

8. Project idea No. 1
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Give the students the list of companies on the
first day of class, and tell them they have two
or three weeks to pick their companies.
Many will want to pick early to get the best
companies. This puts students in competition
with each other.
Also forces students to go ahead and request
SEC filings and annual report from company.

9. Project idea No. 1
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By middle of semester,
require students to write
a one-page memo about
what they think they’ll
final paper will be about.
Gives you the chance to
be their “editor” and finetune idea, suggest
sources or tell them if
they’re off base.
Forces students to do
work throughout the
semester instead of
waiting until end.

10. Project idea No. 1
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Doesn’t necessarily have to be companies in
area.
At Washington & Lee, had students write
about public companies with location in
Lexington, Va.
One student wrote great story about CVS and
shortage of pharmacists in some markets.
Another wrote about Barnes & Noble vs.
independent book stores.

11. Project idea No. 1
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Students learn how to take information
from a number of different sources and
coalesce it into one story.
Can spend one class period talking to
them about magazine story format and
structure.
Some students can get these stories
published.

12. News conference competition

13. Project idea No. 2
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Another project that can
be very effective in
teaching students the
relationship between
business reporters and
companies is the mock
press conference
competition.
Puts students in face-toface combat.

14. Project idea No. 2
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Have run this mock news conference
competition for each of the past six
years in a variety of formats: W&L vs.
Virginia, Richmond vs. Virginia, UNC vs.
Virginia and UNC vs. UNC.
In each situation, business reporting
students have been assigned to ask
questions about a specific company.

15. Project idea No. 2
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Pick with the biz school
professor.
Try to pick companies that
have been in the news in the
past year, or have a crisis
situation.
Past examples include Ford,
Coca-Cola, Merck, Krispy
Kreme and Microsoft.
Business school students play
the part of the CEOs, CFOs,
presidents and PR people of
these companies.

16. Project idea No. 2
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Business school students spend weeks
preparing a press release and developing
prepared answers to expected questions.
Journalism students don’t get notified of what
company they’re assigned to cover until week
of news conference.
Try to make it as realistic as possible. Hold
news conferences at biz school – their turf.

17. Project idea No. 2
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Limit news conferences
to 30 minutes apiece,
and have each group sit
in room so that they can
learn from all of the news
conferences.
Once it’s over, have biz
school students sit with
journalism students so
that they can compare
notes and strategies.
Professors can provide
critique as well.

18. Project idea No. 2
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Have recently used PR and business
journalists in the community to critique
the performance as well.
They love being involved in such a
project, and students will listen more to
the pros than to their professors.
Try to keep it as positive as possible.
Constructive criticism.

19. Project idea No. 2
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Business reporting students are graded on
this assignment based on several factors:
The story they write based on the press
conference.
How well they asked questions.
How well they researched and represented
the media outlet that they represent.

20. Project idea No. 2
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Mock news conference can be held on a
Friday afternoon or a Saturday morning when
students don’t have classes.
Give them one class period off in return.
Many students have never participated in a
news conference.
This project teaches them how to think on
their feet. They don’t receive press release or
know what’s going to be covered beforehand.

21. The roundtable

22. Project idea No. 3
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Another project idea for a
business reporting class is
to hold a roundtable
discussion between the
students and local business
leaders.
Talk to your local paper
about a business news topic
that has generated some
controversy or comments
from the local business
community.

23. Project idea No. 3
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Then, ask the paper’s biz
editor for some sources in
that industry that might
participate in a roundtable
discussion with your class.
Send letters to those
people inviting them to a
two-hour event.
Make it clear that this is a
learning experience.

24. Project idea No. 3
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In April 2005, organized roundtable for
Business Reporting class to discuss The News
& Observer’s coverage of the local
pharmaceutical industry.
Roundtable attracted company CEOs, board
members, executives, PR people, as well as
consultants and professors.
Attempted to bring a wide variety of
viewpoints to the table.

25. Project idea No. 3
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Students were required to research coverage
from the past six months of the paper and
send articles to the roundtable participants.
Then, students were required to ask
questions during the roundtable to facilitate
the discussion.
N&O biz editor and ombudsman sat in the
room, but were not allowed to talk.

26. Project idea No. 3
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Professor may have to step in to
get the discussion back on track
sometimes, or to keep one
person from dominating
discussion.
After roundtable is over,
students required to write
reports about how newspaper
can improve its coverage.
Reports are graded, but also
sent to the biz editor.

27. Project idea No. 3
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What this roundtable project does is show
students the effect of what they write, and
how important it is to have good relationships
with company sources.
Also shows them the importance of accuracy
in their coverage.
Roundtable participants enjoy the opportunity
to vent – with sometimes valid complaints.

28. Project idea No. 3
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Roundtables have been held by university
professors on a number of topics with the
help of the APME National Credibility
Roundtables Project.
Tips and handouts can be downloaded here:
http://www.apme-credibility.org/
Roundtable often results in coverage by
paper as well. N&O ombudsman wrote
column.

29. Project idea No. 3
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The downside to the
roundtable is that it takes a
lot of effort by the
professor.
Roundtable participants
respond more positively
when they receive a phone
call or letter from professor
instead of students.
Can also take some time to
get “buy in” by the local
media outlet.

30. Conclusion
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The outside project, or outside-class
assignments can provide more perspective to
students than writing stories all semester.
Provides students with the big picture of
business journalism.
Also makes them realize the connection
between what they write and how sources
react.