Course Details

Maybe you spot ideas for great business articles everywhere, but figure that financial journalism is an insider's game. Or perhaps you just wish you understood how business and financial issues affect your existing beat, so you can awe your editors, impress your readers and intimidate your rivals with your savvy coverage of the business of healthcare, the way the market for environmental pollution credits is hurting the EPA, or how the new technologies you cover get their start-up financing.

• Transform a lot of numbers and jargon into a story idea that an editor just can't resist.
• Figure out what category of business or financial article your idea can become-and the right publication to pitch it to.
• Get to the people who really know what's going on in the business world-from investment bankers to chief executives-and persuade them to talk to you and give you a glimpse behind the scenes.
• Steer clear of the folks who want to use you and your story to pump up a company's stock price.
• Understand all that jargon, or get people to explain it to you in plain English.
• Target your story to the level of understanding and sophistication of your readers without talking down to them.
• 'Kidnap' ideas from mainstream publications and put a nifty business spin on them
• Figure out how to use data to support your argument and understand when the data is taking over the story and sending your readers to sleep.
• Mine the topics you already cover for stories with a business angle, or apply a basic understanding of business to your existing beat.
• Understand the unique risks of business and financial writing, whether it's a case of putting in one too many (or too few) zeroes in a number or putting a company out of business by writing a negative story about their products.
• Become a full-time business writer, whether it's as a freelance magazine journalist, a Wall Street newsletter entrepreneur or Jack Welch's ghostwriter.

Instructor Bio

Suzanne McGee's Courses

Suzanne McGee spent more than 13 years as a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Toronto, New York, and London. After leaving the Journal in 2002, she became a freelance contributor to more than a dozen business publications, including Barron's, The Financial Times, Institutional Investor, and INC. She is the New York Post's markets correspondent. When she needs a change of pace, Suzanne writes about the art world and philanthropy.

Testimonials

I currently take a class at NYU designed to explain concpets in business and accounting. But Suzanne McGee's class last night singlehandedly cleared up some of the things that have taken me weeks to understand. I would highly recommend this class to anyone in any field who would like to learn how capital markets work. Suzanne not only used anecdotes and easy to understand analogies to make out concepts and practices, she stayed long after the time the class was supposed to end. That alone should serve as a testament that the structure and objective of Mediabisto's class program has little to do with making money, and everything to do with teaching people skills and concepts through effective workshops and seminars. I intend to take another class, especially Suzanne's. -- Matt Kapitanyan, Jr. Associate at a business communications firm

"Suzanne McGee's "Wall Street 101" was just the introduction I hoped for. As business development manager for the NY office of an arbitration and mediation company, I wanted to understand the basics of investment banking. You can't persuade in-house counsel at Goldman and JPMorgan about the benefits of alternative dispute resolution if you don't understand their business. Suzanne's class covered key players on the buy and sell sides, stock exchanges and government regulatory agencies. She discussed leading issues, definitions of terms and shared anecdotes drawn from her 13+ years as a business journalist. Lastly, Suzanne distributed a comprehensive list of web sites and books to consult for additional information. Great class." -- Patricia Sterling, business development manager, JAMS The Resolution Experts