Writing Business News workshops do not seem to take place when all is quiet in the global economy (but perhaps it rarely is). The latest London course in November 2007 was no exception. The weakness of the once-mighty dollar was inspiring comment everywhere, ‘subprime’ lending had reached the general media and not just the financial pages, the oil price was getting closer to $100 a barrel and gold was over $800 an ounce for the first time since 1980.
In this context, workshop members did not disappoint their trainers. Participants from Botswana, Brazil, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, Malawi, Montenegro, Myanmar (Burma), Romania, Russia, Swaziland and Vietnam were as lively as the international financial situation.
The workshop, led by former Reuters journalist Roger Jeal with particular help from Nigel Stephenson, Reuters Editorial Training Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa, stretched participants with exercises set in an imaginary but realistic emerging market country called Transitland and a disaster-hit European business centre. Keith Rockwell, spokesman for the World Trade Organization, held a news conference in our training room to brief participants on the state of play in crucial world trade talks.
There were also visits to the Bank of England, the Financial Times, the Reuters newsroom, the London Metal Exchange and the nerve centre of British politics in Westminster. On the visit to the Bank of England we were just about able to lift (but not remove) a gold bar which was rapidly appreciating in value.
One participant said she had gained a network of colleagues from around the world, which would be very helpful in her work (better than Facebook?). Another suggested the interesting idea that future courses could produce a newsletter each week containing all edited stories produced during the training – if resources allow. Others said they had learned how deeply to cover business issues, how to translate figures into stories, how to be more precise and go directly to the point, and how to “make my readers understand me in an easy way”. One, apparently without complaint, noted that instructors had “forced participants to ask and ask more questions.” Among the many interesting discussions was consideration of when company news is really news and when it might just be publicity and advertising.
The photo shows workshop members and instructors Jeal and Colin McIntyre in front of artwork produced in an exercise analyzing what could happen during different stages of the economic cycle. Most visible is a rocket symbolizing prosperity.
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