ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some stories that are unique to the basic business beats. One of the hardest things for a new business reporter to accomplish is to come up with new story ideas. The most decent-sized business news operations have a regular columnist who provides opinions on trends and issues. While beat reporters on a business desk might be covering different types of stories, how they report and write those stories is still basic journalism: They ask a lot of questions and try to get as much information as possible. An increase in same-store sales is a sign of a healthy retailer. The other measure for retailers is their sales per square foot. The best business news beat reporters are ones who can talk to industry executives and understand difficult topics but who can turn around and write about those hard-to-understand issues in a way that the average person understands.
