Times-Dispatch Business News Staff Expands

It has been more than year since the financial meltdown transformed the economy, the way business is conducted and regulated, and the way people conduct their personal finances.

It also changed the way the me JOHN
HOKE
dia, including the

Richmond Times-Dispatch, cover the economy and business.

We routinely showcase our daily business coverage on the front page and our in-depth projects on the Sunday front to examine the impacts of the recession. We restyled the Sunday Business section as Moneywise to offer readers a lens into how other people and companies are weathering the economic storm. And we continue to press forward with delivering our business news report not only in the newspaper but online and through mobile alerts, e-newsletters, and social media such as Twitter.

We have received a lot of good feedback from our readers and online viewers. For example, real estate reporter Carol Hazard received this note after a summer story on foreclosures:

"Your article was well-written with facts, context, and perspective. More articles like yours are needed. Thank you for an excellent news piece. Tell your bosses, quality articles like yours, not half-baked entertainment stories, keep me reading the RT-D newspaper and online."

That is music to our ears and our charge to keep pressing on.

We are not going to let up on our efforts to improve and expand our coverage of the Richmond-area economy and business community, and how the continuing economic stresses affect companies, families, and individuals.

That is not necessarily the case in other media. A recent study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found that media coverage of the economy has subsided as it has shown signs of improvement.

Newspapers and other media have themselves struggled through the downturn as an unprecedented decline in advertising revenue cut off critical cash flow.

In the face of the biggest economic crisis of most of our lifetimes, many newspapers, including some of the largest, responded to the financial pressures by reducing and sometimes eliminating their dedicated business sections. Many reduced -- and in a few instances, eliminated -- their business news staffs.

Not The Times-Dispatch. Leading the charge chanting "economy, economy, economy" was Executive Editor Glenn Proctor, a former business editor and business reporter. Instead of reducing coverage, Proctor has expanded The T-D's business news desk.

In the spring, staff writer Peter Bacqué joined the desk to cover transportation and energy issues, including electric utilities. This fall, David Ress, a longtime investigative reporter with a wealth of experience analyzing databases and financial records, joined the team as the primary economy reporter. Longtime medical writer Tammie Smith came over to business news to bring a new focus to our coverage of the health care industry, one of the largest sectors of the region's economy.

Business reporter Emily C. Dooley will shift her focus to technology and how it affects the way businesses conduct their work and how people live their lives. She also will be working on improving and expanding business news coverage online and through multimedia.

There are 10 of us on the business news desk now, and we are eager to bring you the sharpest, most relevant, and engaging business coverage possible. I encourage you to contact me or other members of our team with news tips, story ideas, coverage suggestions, and, yes, criticism. Or make our day by giving us a pat on the back.

John Hoke is business news editor. Contact him at (804) 649-6344 or .