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Loeb Award winners 2014

In: Awards 27 Apr 2015 0 comments

Beat Reporting Winner
“Duke Energy and Nuclear Power in Florida,” by Ivan Penn, Tampa Bay Times

Breaking News Winner
“Bangladesh,” by Jim Yardley, Julfikar Ali Manik, and Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times

Commentary Winner
“Commentary by Peter Goodman,” by Peter Goodman, The Huffington Post

Explanatory Winner
“Assets of the Ayatollah,” by Steve Stecklow, Babak Dehghanpisheh, and Yeganeh Torbati, Reuters

Images/Visuals Winner
“Interactive Graphics,” by Ford Fessenden, Tom Giratikanon, Josh Keller, Archie Tse, Tim Wallace, Derek Watkins, Jeremy White, Karen Yourish, Shan Carter, Hannah Fairfield, Alicia Parlapiano, Mike Bostock, Amanda Cox, Matthew Ericson, Kevin Quealy, and Josh Williams, The New York Times

International Winner
“The Shortest Route to Riches,” by Kerry A. Dolan and Rafael Marques de Morais, Forbes

Investigative Winner
“Breathless and Burdened: Dying from Black Lung, Buried by Law and Medicine,” by Chris Hamby, Brian Ross, Matthew Mosk, Rhonda Schwartz, Chris Zubak-Skees, Ronnie Greene, and Jim Morris, The Center for Public Integrity, in partnership with ABC News

Magazines Winner
“Stranded: An iPhone Tester Caught in Apple’s Supply Chain,” by Cam Simpson, Bloomberg Businessweek

News Services Winner
“Rigging the World’s Biggest Market,” by Liam Vaughan, Gavin Finch, Bob Ivry, and Ambereen Choudhury, Bloomberg News

Large Newspapers Winner
“Five of the NSA Stories,” by Barton Gellman, Laura Poitras, Ellen Nakashima, Craig Timberg, Steven Rich, and Ashkan Soltani, The Washington Post

Small & Medium Newspapers Winner
“Deadly Delays,” by Ellen Gabler, Mark Johnson, John Fauber, Allan James Vestal, and Kristyna Wentz-Graff, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Online Winner
“Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt,” by Kainaz Amaria, Alex Blumberg, Brian Boyer, Jacob Goldstein, Wes Lindamood, and Joshua Davis, NPR

Personal Finance Winner
“60 Minutes: 40 Million Mistakes,” by Steve Kroft, Bill Owens, Jeff Fager, James Jacoby, Michael Karzis, and Matthew Lev, CBS News

Video/Audio Winner
“Under the Hood: The AAMCO Investigation,” by Tisha Thompson, Rick Yarborough, Jeff Piper, and Mike Goldrick, WRC-TV

2014 Best in Business Winners

In: Awards 27 Apr 2015 0 comments

Here are the 2014 BIB winners and finalists. Winners were announced at the 2014 BIB awards ceremony at SABEW’s spring conference in Chicago, April 25.

DIGITAL

DIGITAL BREAKING NEWS, Division 1

Finalist- Amanda Levin, The Deal, for “Unsolicited bid puts Cleco on the block.”

DIGITAL BREAKING NEWS, Division 2

Winner- Dan Mangan, CNBC.com, for Affordable Care Act subsidies ruling coverage.

DIGITAL COMMENTARY, Division 1

Winner- Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica, for “The Trade.”

DIGITAL COMMENTARY, Division 2

Winner- Walt Mossberg, Re/code, for his technology columns.

DIGITAL EXPLANATORY, Division 1

Finalist- Rob Hotakainen, Takaaki Iwabu, Patrick Davison, Danny Dougherty, Tish Wells, Cheryl Diaz Meyer, McClatchy Washington Bureau, for “US exporters eye Japan.”

Winner- Matt Drange, Susanne Rust, Andrew Donohue, The Guardian US, The Center for Investigative Reporting, for “Toxic Trail.”

DIGITAL EXPLANATORY, Division 2

Finalist- Elizabeth Gannes, Re/code, for “I want it and I want it now: The machine behind instant gratification.”

Winner- Heesun Wee, Kevin Krim, Jeff Nash, CNBC.com, for “How millennials are shaking North Korea’s regime.”

DIGITAL FEATURE, Division 1

Winner- Eleanor Bell, Daniel Wagner, Center for Public Integrity, for “Time is Money.”

DIGITAL FEATURE, Division 2

Finalist- Nellie Bowles, Re/code, for “Downtown Las Vegas is the great American techtopia.”

Winner- Lawrence Delevingne, Kevin Krim, Jeff Nash, CNBC.com, for “The life and death of a master of the universe.”

DIGITAL GENERAL EXCELLENCE, Division 1

Winner- The Deal Staff, The Deal

DIGITAL GENERAL EXCELLENCE, Division 2

Winner- Quartz Staff, Quartz

DIGITAL INVESTIGATIVE, Division 1

Finalist- Paul Kiel, Chris Arnold, ProPublica, National Public Radio for “The long life of debt.”

Winner- Greg Gordon, Lydia Mulvaney, Deb Gruver, Paul Hampton, Tish Wells, Danny Dougherty, McClatchy Washington Bureau, for “Motorola’s lock on emergency communications equipment.”

DIGITAL INVESTIGATIVE, Division 2

Finalist- Adam Feuerstein, TheStreet, for “Galena’s good reviews.”

Winner- David Sirota, International Business Times, for “Public Money, Private Profits.”

ENERGY

Finalist- Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, for Chesapeake Energy coverage.

Finalist- Bruce Henderson, The Charlotte Observer, for energy coverage.

Winner- Jeffrey Ball, Fortune, for “Mexico Black Gold.”

GOVERNMENT

Finalist- Ann Marsh, Scott Wenger, Kamrhan Farwell, Financial Planning for ”Could financial planning help stem the rate of military suicides?”

Finalist- Allan Sloan, Fortune, for “Positively Un-American.”

Winner- Chloe Sorvino, May Jeong, Geoff Dyer, Victor Mallet, Financial Times, for “The Cost of War.”

HEALTH CARE

Finalist- Rita Price, Ben Sutherly, The Columbus Dispatch, for “Home-care Crisis.”

Finalist- Shannon Pettypiece, Jordan Robertson, Bloomberg News, for “Health Secrets for Sale.”

Finalist- Nikhil Deogun, Meg Tirrell, Jodi Gralnick, CNBC, for “Desperate Measures.”

Winner- Beth Daley, Shan Wang, Samantha Costanzo, New England Center for Investigative Reporting, for “Unregulated Tests.”

INNOVATION

Finalist- Gregor Aisch, Wilson Andrews, Jeremy Ashkenas, Matthew Bloch, Mike Bostock, Shan Carter, Haeyoun Park, Alicia Parlapiano, Archie Tse, The New York Times, for a collection of economic tools and visualizations.

Finalist- Editorial Staff, Crain’s New York Business, for ”The 200 Most-Connected New Yorkers.”

Winner- Donnelle Eller, Sharyn Jackson, Christopher Gannon, Des Moines Register, for “Harvest of Change.”

INTERNATIONAL

INTERNATIONAL BREAKING NEWS

Winner- Michael J. de la Merced, Neil Gough, Andrew Jacobs, Karl Russell, The New York Times, for Alibaba coverage.

INTERNATIONAL COMMENTARY

Winner- John Gapper, Financial Times, for his columns.

INTERNATIONAL EXPLANATORY

Finalist- Peter Spiegel, Financial Times, for “How the Euro was saved.”

Winner- International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Center for Public Integrity, for “Offshore Secrets.”

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

Finalist- The Wall Street Journal Staff, The Wall Street Journal, for “Kowloon Walled City.”

Winner- Lily Kuo, Quartz, for “The true implications of China’s North-South Water Transfer Project.”

INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATIVE

Finalist- Patricia Kowsmann, Margot Patrick, David Enrich, The Wall Street Journal, for “Fall of Espirito Santo.”

Winner- Stephen Grey and team, Reuters, for “Comrade Capitalism.”

NEWS AGENCIES

NEWS AGENCIES COMMENTARY

Winner- Reynolds Holding, Reuters’ Breakingviews, for his columns.

NEWS AGENCIES EXPLANATORY

Winner- Duff Wilson, Deborah Nelson, Bill Tarrant, Alister Doyle, Ryan McNeill, Reuters, for “Water’s Edge.”

NEWS AGENCIES FEATURE

Winner- Jeff Plungis, David Voreacos, Bloomberg News, for “Death on the Highway.”

NEWS AGENCIES GENERAL EXCELLENCE

Winner- Michael Riley, Ben Elgin, Dune Lawrence, Carol Matlack, Patrick G. Lee, David Voreacos, Jeff Plungis, Martin Keohan, Mary Childs, Alexis Leondis, Charles Stein, Bloomberg News

NEWS AGENCIES INVESTIGATIVE

Winner- Michael Riley, Ben Elgin, Dune Lawrence, Carol Matlack, Jordan Robertson, Bloomberg News, for “Cyber Wars.”

PERSONAL FINANCE

Finalist- Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Michael Corkery, The New York Times, for “Driven into Debt.”

Finalist- Margaret Collins, Carol Hymowitz, Richard Rubin, Bloomberg News, for “The 401(k) Mirage.”

Winner- Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, for “Surviving Detroit’s bankruptcy.”

PRINT-DAILY NEWSPAPERS

NEWSPAPERS BREAKING NEWS, Division 1

Winner- Robert Snell, Chad Livengood, David Shepardson, Detroit News, for “Bankruptcy breakthrough: Detroit reaches settlement in dispute with its fiercest holdout creditor.”

NEWSPAPERS BREAKING NEWS, Division 2

Winner- Matthew Garrahan, Tim Bradshaw, Financial Times, for Apple Beat scoop and analysis.

NEWSPAPERS BREAKING NEWS, Division 3

Winner- Shalini Ramachandran, Dana Cimilluca, Brent Kendall, Gautham Nagesh, Rani Molla, Dana Mattioli, Martin Peers, The Wall Street Journal, for Comcast-Time Warner deal coverage.

NEWSPAPERS COMMENTARY, Division 1

Winner- Daniel Howes, Detroit News, for his columns.

NEWSPAPERS COMMENTARY, Division 2

Finalist- Gillian Tett, Financial Times, for her columns.

Winner- David Nicklaus, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, for his columns.

NEWSPAPERS COMMENTARY, Division 3

Winner- Eduardo Porter, The New York Times, for his columns.

NEWSPAPERS EXPLANATORY, Division 1

Finalist- Hugh Bailey, Connecticut Post, for “Ruins Reborn.”

Finalist- Jeff Adelson, Rebekah Allen, Mark Ballard, Gordon Russell, Richard Thompson, The Advocate, for “Giving away Louisiana.”

Winner- Daniel Howes, Chad Livengood, David Shepardson, Gary Heinlein, Christine Ferretti, Brian J. O’Connor, Detroit News, for “Bankruptcy and Beyond.”

NEWSPAPERS EXPLANATORY, Division 2

Finalist- Adam Belz, Star Tribune, for “Left Behind.”

Finalist- Jay Greene, Susan Jouflas, Kelly Shea, Mark Watanabe, The Seattle Times, for “Amazon’s European Culture Clash.”

Winner- Lillian Thomas, Sean D. Hamill, Kevin Crowe, Allan James Vestal, Guy Boulton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, for “Poor Health.”

NEWSPAPERS EXPLANATORY, Division 3

Finalist- Jennifer Levitz, Jon Kamp, Tom Burton, The Wall Street Journal, for “Deadly Medicine.”

Winner- Matt Richtel, Sabrina Tavernise, The New York Times, for “The New Smoke.”

NEWSPAPERS FEATURES, Division 1

Winner- Sarah Kleiner Varble, The Virginian-Pilot, for “Then the walls closed in.”

NEWSPAPERS FEATURES, Division 2

Winner- Adam Belz, Star Tribune, for “Left Behind.”

NEWSPAPERS FEATURES, Division 3

Winner- Nathan Bomey, John Gallagher, Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, for “How Detroit was Reborn.”

NEWSPAPERS GENERAL EXCELLENCE, Division 1

Finalist- Paul Delean, Lynn Moore, François Shalom, Mick Côté, Steve Faguy, Jeff Heinrich, Tracey Lindeman, Susan Semenak, The Gazette (Montreal Quebec)

Winner- Lynn Hicks, Donnelle Eller, Patt Johnson, Joel Aschbrenner, Matthew Patane, Marco Santana, Charles Flesher, The Des Moines Register

NEWSPAPERS GENERAL EXCELLENCE, Division 2

Winner- Business News Staff, Star Tribune

NEWSPAPERS GENERAL EXCELLENCE, Division 3

Winner- The Wall Street Journal staff, The Wall Street Journal

NEWSPAPERS INVESTIGATIVE, Division 1

Finalist- Josh Salman, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, for “Selling Hope.”

Winner- John Russell, Steve Berta, The Indianapolis Star, for “Pets at Risk.”

NEWSPAPERS INVESTIGATIVE, Division 2

Finalist- Mike Wereschagin, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, for “The Invisible Threat.”

Winner- Christine Willmsen, Lewis Kamb, Justin Mayo, Garland Potts, Mark Nowlin, Marcus Yam, Mark Harrison, Jim Neff, The Seattle Times, for “Loaded with lead: How gun ranges poison workers and shooters.”

NEWSPAPERS INVESTIGATIVE, Division 3

Finalist- Richard Marosi, Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times, for “Product of Mexico.”

Winner- Danielle Ivory, Rebecca R. Ruiz, Hiroko Tabuchi, Bill Vlasic, Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times, for “Fatal Flaws.”

PRINT-MAGAZINE

MAGAZINES COMMENTARY, Division 1

Winner- Vitaliy Katsenelson, Institutional Investor, for his columns.

MAGAZINES COMMENTARY, Division 2

Winner- Peter Coy, Bloomberg Businessweek, for his columns.

MAGAZINES EXPLANATORY, Division 1

Finalist- Frances Denmark, Institutional Investor, for “Life, Death & the Numbers.”

Winner- Margarida Correia, Lee Conrad, Bank Investment Consultant, for “Dementia.”

MAGAZINES EXPLANATORY, Division 2

Finalist- Janet Bodnar, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, for “Starting out/Guide to your money: How millennials can get ahead.”

Winner- Allan Sloan, Fortune, for “Positively Un-American.”

MAGAZINES FEATURE, Division 1

Finalist- Hiten Samtani, The Real Deal, for “Doubling down on the Prince of Darkness.”

Winner- Aaron Timms, Institutional Investor, for “The race to topple Bloomberg.”

MAGAZINES FEATURE, Division 2

Finalist- Gary Rivlin, The New York Times Magazine/ The Investigative Fund, for “The cold, hard lessons of Mobile Home U.”

Finalist- Parmy Olson, Forbes, for “Calling the American Dream.”

Winner- Tom Foster, Will Bourne, Inc., for “Along came Lolly.”

MAGAZINES GENERAL EXCELLENCE, Division 1

Winner- Paul Jackson, Jacob Gaffney, HousingWire

MAGAZINES GENERAL EXCELLENCE, Division 2

Winner- Josh Tyrangiel, Bloomberg Businessweek

MAGAZINES INVESTIGATIVE, Division 1

Winner- David Beal, Sarah Lutman, Twin Cities Business, for “Whose legacy is it?”

MAGAZINES INVESTIGATIVE, Division 2

Winner- Ann Marsh, Scott Wenger, Kamrhan Farwell, Financial Planning, for “Could financial planning help stem the rate of military suicides?”

PRINT-WEEKLIES AND BI-WEEKLIES

WEEKLIES BREAKING NEWS

Finalist- J.K. Wall, Indianapolis Business Journal, for “IU Health Merging Hospitals.”

Winner- Albert Gallun, Crain’s Chicago Business, for “Poor families use ‘supervouchers’ to rent in city’s priciest buildings.”

WEEKLIES COMMENTARY

Finalist- Joe Cahill, Crain’s Chicago Business, for his columns.

Winner- Mike Hendricks, The Business Review (Albany,NY), for his columns.

WEEKLIES EXPLANATORY

Finalist- Dennis Domrzalski, Dan Mayfield, Tina Orem, Rachel Sams, Damon Scott, Rachel Baca, Chan Avery, Randy Siner, Albuquerque Business First, for “Reinventing our City.”

Finalist- E.J. Schultz, Advertising Age, for “Whatever happened to the ad war on drugs?”

Winner- Bill King, David Bourne, Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, for “Soccer’s Growing Reach.”

WEEKLIES FEATURE

Finalist- Kate Kaye, Advertising Age, for “A Data Lab Rat in the Big City: Why trackers couldn’t trap this city dweller.”

Finalist- Bill King, Tom Stinson, Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, for “Man of Steel.”

Winner- Mike Hendricks, The Business Review (Albany,NY), for “The other side of Mohawk Harbor.”

WEEKLIES GENERAL EXCELLENCE

Finalist- Matthew Kish, Malia Spencer, Wendy Culverwell, Elizabeth Hayes, Jon Bell, Mason Walker, Andy Giegerich, Brandon Sawyer, Craig Spencer, Cathy Cheney, Steve Burton, Erik Siemers, Suzanne Stevens, Portland Business Journal

Finalist- Staff, Advertising Age

Winner- Greg Andrews and staff, Indianapolis Business Journal

WEEKLIES INVESTIGATIVE

Winner- Eric Martin, TradeWinds, for “Service Charge Included.”

RADIO/TELEVISION

RADIO/TV BEST SERIES OR INVESTIGATIVE

Winner- Nikhil Deogun, Mitch Weitzner, Phil LeBeau, Mary Noonan Robichaux, Wally Griffith, Deborah Camiel, Rich Gardella, Meghan Lisson, Jeff Pohlman, Meghan Reeder, James Segelstein, Michael Beyman, Christie Gripenburg, Patrick Ahearn, Rich Korn, Allison E. Stedman, Howard Ellis, Michael Sheehan, Steve Trevisan, Gary Vandenbergh, CNBC, for “Failure to Recall: Investigating GM.”

RADIO/TV FEATURE OR FIELD REPORT

Winner- Nikhil Deogun, Mitch Weitzner, Harry Smith, Mary Noonan Robichaux, Na Eng, Meghan Lisson, James Segelstein, Christie Gripenburg, Patrick Ahearn, Allison E. Stedman, Kelly Laudien, Richard Korn, CNBC, for “Marijuana in America: Colorado’s Pot Rush.”

REAL ESTATE

Finalist- Alison Fitzgerald, Jared Bennett, Center for Public Integrity, for “Florida’s Foreclosure Crisis.”

Finalist- Daniel J. Sernovitz, Washington Business Journal, for coverage of Washington, D.C. real estate.

Winner- Sarah Kleiner Varble, The Virginian-Pilot, for “Then the walls closed in.”

SMALL BUSINESS

Finalist- Ruth Simon, Tom McGinty, Angus Loten, Ianthe Jeanne Dugan, The Wall Street Journal, for “The imbalance in small-business lending.”

Winner-Tiffany Hsu, Chris Kirkham, Los Angeles Times, for coverage of California small business.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Winner- Scot Mayerowitz, Associated Press

STUDENT – PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS

Finalist- Jennifer Surane, University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill for “General Cable getting cheaper beckons activists: Real M&A.” Published by Bloomberg News.

Finalist- Jonathan LaMantia, University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill for “Manhattan condos at half price reshape New York’s Harlem.” Published by Bloomberg News.

Winner- Brittany Elena Morris, Arizona State University, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication for “NAFTA is an empty basket for southern Mexico farmers.” Published by the Arizona Daily Star.

STUDENT – STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

Finalist- Samantha M. Sabin, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, for “Sugar Baby.”

Winner- Daniel Bauman, Webster University, for “The costs and benefits of an elite college chess game.

TECHNOLOGY

Finalist- Alex Kantrowitz, Advertising Age, for “Digital ad fraud.”

Finalist- The Wall Street Journal Staff, The Wall Street Journal, for “Open Sesame: Peering inside Alibaba.”

Winner- Jennifer Gollan, Matt Smith, Adithya Sambamurthy, Michael Schiller, Amy Pyle, Robert Salladay, The Center for Investigative Reporting, for “Techsploitation.”

Unauthorized Books: Corporate Cooperation and Business Journalism

In: Stories 17 May 2014 0 comments

By Maddy Will

Sam Walton, who founded the largest company in the history of the world, devotes the very first pages of his autobiography to his distrust of the press.

The relationship between companies and the business journalists who cover them has always been somewhat contentious. Tight-lipped executives deliberate over how much information to disclose to the reporters who are digging to expose any wrongdoings or financial mishaps. When journalists up the ante and decide to write a book about a company, relationships can become even tenser.

Many companies decline to cooperate altogether, forcing journalists to obtain information in other ways. Other companies grant limited access, with a list of stipulations attached. When companies do cooperate, journalists have to balance their input with writing the truth.

“I think that cooperation is a hard thing,” said Yukari Iwatani Kane, author of the recent book “Haunted Empire: Apple after Steve Jobs.” “A book is really long, you only have so much control, and it’s risky for companies. As a writer, it’s risky as well — you absolutely want a company’s cooperation, if they’re going to give it to you, the answer is always yes. But if you end up with the company’s line, it’s not going to be an interesting book.”

“Some of the best journalism has been without the company’s cooperation,” she said. “As a journalist, that’s what everyone aspires to — to tell the truth about something that’s not apparent.”

Writing an unbiased truth

“Haunted Empire,” which was published this March, examines Apple post-Steve Jobs and the challenges his successor Tim Cook faces at the company’s helm.

“It’s a story about what happened to an empire when it loses its emperor,” said Kane, who was once an Apple beat reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

Soon after it was published, Cook decried the book as “nonsense,” saying, “It fails to capture Apple, Steve, or anyone else in the company.”

But Apple refused to cooperate with Kane the entire time she was writing the book — something she said was not much different from when she was a beat reporter at the Journal. When it was time to fact-check, she initially ran two questions by the company to test the waters: what kind of tree is in front of Apple’s main building, cherry or apple? And what did Yo-Yo Ma play at Steve Jobs’ memorial service?

Apple declined to answer the second question. Officials said they would get back to Kane on the first question, but they never did.

“I figured if they couldn’t help me with basic fact-checking, there was no point. They weren’t going to help me with deeper fact-checking,” she said. “I made the decision to instead run things by my sources, (many of whom) were primary.”

Kane said she didn’t expect Apple to like the book, but she was surprised when Cook made the public statement criticizing “Haunted Empire,” because Apple traditionally doesn’t comment on books about the company.

She stands by her book, saying that it’s fair, balanced and neutral. She had talked to former and some current Apple employees to get the sense of the company’s culture. And after the book was published, Kane said she received email from some “surprising people” who praised the book and its accuracy.

Not having easy access to Apple forced her to be more resourceful in her reporting, and more skeptical of the official company line, she said.

“When you don’t get the cooperation, you work that much harder to … get what the truth is. The truth won’t be colored by the company’s perspective,” she said. “When you’re talking to a company officially, they do have a vested interest in making themselves look as good as possible. When you don’t have that official view with those colored lenses, I think it lets you see things more clearly for what they are.”

Before Kane’s book was released, Adam Lashinsky wrote “Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired – and Secretive – Company Really Works,” a story about the company’s strategies, innovation and transition into new leadership post-Jobs.

He did receive help from Apple with fact checking, but he was not granted any interviews with company management.

“Through their lack of cooperation, they ceded total control to me,” he said. “I drove the agenda, I chose what I wanted to write about without any influence from them. There’s a downside to access — there are pros and cons.”

Still, Charles Fishman, author of “The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works – And How It’s Transforming the American Economy,” said he trusts that he can avoid being unduly influenced by the company line.

“I will always take cooperation, I will always take access, I don’t fear being bought out,” he said.

Unintended benefits

Wal-Mart — following in the legacy of Sam Walton, who famously distrusted the press — didn’t cooperate with Fishman when he was writing his book in the early 2000s.

“That was in the DNA of Wal-Mart,” Fishman said.

Walton believed that talking to the press was a waste of time because when an employee was talking to a reporter, he wasn’t doing anything for the business. He also feared that competitors would see what the company had said to reporters, potentially giving away strategies.

Fishman said Wal-Mart now grants more media access than it did when he was writing his book. After his book was published, Wal-Mart officials, pleased with his fairness, reached out to Fishman and invited him to the company headquarters. He wrote follow-up chapters to his book with Wal-Mart’s cooperation.

But there were some unintended benefits to the company’s initial lack of cooperation, he said.

“The fact that they wouldn’t cooperate forced me to be hugely resourceful and energetic in finding people who would talk,” he said. “That resistance meant I ended up talking to people who I probably wouldn’t have talked to otherwise.”

He said it taught him an important lesson as a journalist — you can report anything if you’re determined enough. Writing about a person or a company without access to that subject challenges the journalist to find the information and the details elsewhere.

When Amey Stone, executive editor of CBS MoneyWatch, co-wrote “King of Capital: Sandy Weill and the Making of Citigroup”in 2002, she had just 20 minutes with Weill himself.

“We had really written the whole book by the time they gave us access to him,” she said. “It was very strategic when it got down to that point.”

While hearing directly from Weill enriched the book by peppering it with direct quotes and anecdotes, she said she was prepared to publish the book without his input. In the course of her reporting, she had gone through decades of past interviews with Weill.

“I think the surprising thing is, when you actually do it, you can learn a lot about people without having talked to them,” she said. “Some of the most interesting books have been written without (the subject’s) cooperation.”

Accuracy with no access

A major downside that comes with a lack of cooperation from companies is the fear of getting something wrong.

Fishman sent Wal-Mart 10 pages of fact-checking questions after he was done writing. Some were routine questions, while some were more substantive. Wal-Mart didn’t answer any.

Fishman then hired a fact-checker to re-interview people and check every fact.

“If I got something wrong, Wal-Mart would say, ‘how right is the rest of the book?’” he said. “I didn’t want to give them the chance to pick out three tiny errors … and say the whole book is wrong.”

Last fall, Bloomberg Businessweek writer Brad Stone published “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon.” Stone spoke with several Amazon executives, but not Bezos himself.

Bezos’ wife, MacKenzie Bezos, gave the book a one-star review on Amazon.com. She opened her review pointing out a small error in the book — Stone got the date wrong of when Bezos read a certain book.

“Everywhere I can fact check from personal knowledge, I find way too many inaccuracies, and unfortunately that casts doubt over every episode in the book,” she wrote.

In a piece for Fortune magazine, Lashinsky wrote that MacKenzie Bezos used that one fact error as an opening to criticize the book, when in reality, she didn’t like the book because it painted Amazon and Bezos in an uncomfortable light. The company and its founder are portrayed as ruthless and willing to bypass laws to offer customers lower prices.

In an interview, Lashinsky said the situation with MacKenzie Bezos and Stone was unique, but those kinds of tensions between company officials and journalists are not uncommon.

“The press exists to inform and entertain their readers, and of course, to tell the truth,” he said. “Companies have only one goal — it’s not to tell stories and tell the truth and expose weaknesses, it’s to sell products and make money.”

Sometimes, companies grant access with the stipulation that they be able to see the book before it’s published.

Thomas Lee, who is the author of the upcoming “Rebuilding Empires: How Best Buy and Other Retailers are Transforming and Competing in the Digital Age of Retailing,” enjoyed deep access to Best Buy — on the condition that he submit his manuscript to the company before it’s published for fact-checking.

“That would never happen, nor should it, in a newspaper world. You don’t submit your stories beforehand,” he said. “In this case, I had more freedom to work, and it really satisfied them and they gave me tons and tons of access.”

Lee, who is still working on the manuscript, said he expects Best Buy to not like some of the content and ask for changes, but he won’t guarantee any. He said he expects a lot of negotiation with the company.

“They invested a shitload of time and access with me. It got to be at some point where they were volunteering things to me that I didn’t even ask for,” he said. “We’ll fight over (changes), but (the book is) going to happen and I think they want it to. I don’t think there’s any one thing that’s going to sink it. We’ll fight over it, and eventually, we’ll get through it.”

The companies’ strategy

Some of companies’ hesitation in participating in book projects stems from wanting to keep a competitive advantage and not release company secrets or strategies, said Paul Friga, associate professor at the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at UNC-Chapel Hill, who also wrote “The McKinsey Mind” and “The McKinsey Engagement.”

Also, the book-writing process is long, and executives often balk at devoting so much time to something that doesn’t directly benefit business, he said.

But there are some pros for the company to participate, Friga said — a book written about the company is free publicity.

And of course, cooperation gives the companies a chance to add their perspective to the story.

“I would say there are two things moving in the direction of more access: the understanding that you get to shape the stories, and the sense that if there’s bad news, it’s going to come out,” Fishman said. “You really are better off talking. Whatever you’re doing wrong, someone’s going to tell that story eventually.

“If the NSA can’t protect its most secret secrets from employees, what chance does Wal-Mart or Target or any of these companies actually stand?”

Nowadays, companies like Wal-Mart might give more access to business journalists, but there’s often a catch. Some companies are now requiring public relations staff to be present during interviews with executives, Fishman said.

“That’s just kind of chilling all the way around. That’s not the kind of story I want to write. I don’t want to write a story where someone’s following me around and eyeing who’s talking to me,” he said. “That chills the sense of vividness that you want in a story.”

Business journalists say they have come to expect the pushback from the companies, or the silence. It’s part of the culture between companies and journalists. Some say it shows that journalists’ work is relevant.

“I think the worst thing that could ever happen to you as a journalist is, someone just doesn’t give a shit about what you write about them,” Lee said. “If they don’t care, that means you have zero impact on them.”

Will is a senior business journalism major at UNC-Chapel Hill. She will intern this summer at Education Week and interned last summer with Reuters in New York.