By Michelle Brant

Hobart Rowan

To say Hobart Rowen influenced the way we produce and consume business journalism is an understatement. Rowen shaped business journalism into what it is today.

Rowen was born in 1919 in Burlington, Vt., and graduated from City College of New York in 1938.

Rowen jumped straight into his career in 1938 at the New York Journal of Commerce and went on to work for 21 years at Newsweek magazine, where he acted as business trends editor.

The turning point came in 1961 when The Washington Post acquired Newsweek. Ben Bradlee, the current vice president at-large at The Washington Post, recruited Rowen to build up its business desk in 1966.

Bradlee was also Rowen’s mentor. “In all respects, he (Rowen) reflected the strengths of his sponsor at the Post, Ben Bradlee,” said Dave Beal, a fellow member of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers  with Rowen.

Rowen joined The Post as the paper’s first assistant managing editor for financial news. This led to the creation of the Sunday Business Section.

Rowen also oversaw a twice-weekly syndicated column on international and domestic economic affairs, appearing in many leading papers around the United States.

Rowen’s accomplishments lie in the fact that he helped put business journalism on the map. Before Rowen, business journalism was not something the general newsreader was interested in, and was not widely published.

The proof is in the numbers. Under Rowen, the Post’s business staff rose to 30 in 1975 from four in 1966. In the same time period the business news section grew from three columns to day to more then 20.

“(Rowen) helped take it from being a backwater where people just rewrote press releases to one of the most desired place to be in newsrooms,” said Jodi Schneider of Bloomberg News.

The timing of it all created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Rowen was the right person at the right time to expand the business desk, and economics coverage overall.

The rapid growth of the business desk from 1966-1975 with Rowen came about due to a combination of Rowen’s immense talent, and his ability to take advantage of the regulatory climate stirring.

This time period brought about the rapid growth of regulatory agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency. This was a huge wake up call for the business world, which now had a lot more to deal with.

Rowen followed his intuition and successfully pushed the new beats to cover these agencies attached to the business desk. This created markedly different business journalism, and a great expansion of business desk activity and interest in business journalism.

“He gets a lot of praise, all justifiable, for putting the Post on the map in terms of international economics coverage, and economics coverage generally” said Beal. The business desk, and business journalism in general, exploded with Rowen.

Rowen’s accomplishments and influence in business journalism spread well beyond The Post. Rowen was also an active member of SABEW and served as its president in 1973-1974.

Rowen’s influence at SABEW was far reaching. Most importantly, Rowen played an instrumental role in creating SABEW’s landmark Code of Ethics for business journalists.

This code was the first of its kind. “He helped put SABEW on the map as a journalistic institution” said Schneider.

As a testament to his work at SABEW, Rowen was the first recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award for an outstanding career in business journalism in 1994.

Beal recounted his most memorable work with Rowen at SABEW when he recruited speakers for the first annual SABEW meeting.

SABEW only 58 members at the time, but Rowen pulled some of the biggest names in business and economics to speak — from Ralph Nader to the chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Beal points to this as an indicator of the clout and influence he held.

From SABEW to the Post, Rowen’s influence touched all areas of business journalism and put business journalism and economic coverage on the map. Rowen died at 76 in Chevy Chase, Md.

Beal summed it up best: “He was a tough cookie who knew what his best interests and those of his employer were … developed the capacity to write concisely about and pump out readable columns on important and incredibly complex topics and had an unusually deep sense of what the world was all about.”

Michelle Brant is a native of Oceanside, N.Y., and an economics and advertising major in the Class of 2014 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

By Katie McNulty

James J. Mitchell

As business editor and as a business columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, Mitchell used his writing to keep his audience grounded as Silicon Valley was experiencing astounding technology and economic accomplishments.

Mitchell, a native of California, grew up in Santa Barbara. Upon graduating from Yale in 1967, he went on to study at the University of Wisconsin and earned graduate degrees in Latin American studies and journalism.

He received his first newspaper job at the Charlotte Observer. Mitchell then went on to the San Diego Union as a business reporter.

For Mitchell, 1977 was an exciting year. That was the year that he married his wife, Susie Sutton. It was also the year that he became the business editor of The San Jose Mercury News.

“He was business editor of the San Jose Mercury News at a time when technology news was developing into a very powerful era, and he was on the early stages of developing sophisticated coverage of technology business,” said Michael Millican former business editor of the Associated Press.

As business editor, Mitchell reminded his team to learn from lessons in history and to keep things in perspective.

During the ’70s and ’80s, Silicon Valley was an important economic center, and technology was at the heart of it.  At a time when news coverage of business tended to be perfunctory and routine, Mitchell and the journalists at the Mercury News significantly elevated the public’s understanding of business news in general and technology news in particular.

“The improvement of coverage of business technology and the development of business technology in Silicon Valley went hand in glove, and Jim was a key part of that,” said Millican.

While Mitchell was at the Mercury News, he was an influence in the stunning increase of staff members in the technology department. The staff started with 12 members, but by August 2000 there were 70 business journalists, a full television studio in the newsroom, and an online website.

“To have a staff of over 50 is just astounding,” said David Beal, former Society of American Business Editors and Writers president and former business editor for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Mitchell left the business editor position at the Mercury News in the early ’90s to become a full time business columnist at the paper. As a business columnist, Mitchell wrote about the expansion of Silicon Valley and topics such as the dot-com boom and the high increase in stocks of technology companies. The stock increases of the dot-com boom eventually led to the dot-com crash in the early 2000s.

Many young reporters flocked to Silicon Valley to cover the boom in technology, but they lacked what Mitchell had: a homegrown council.

“He brought a long term view as to where technology was going, where San Jose fit in that growth pattern and how things worked in the city. He knew more than just business,” said Peter Hillan, former executive business editor of the Mercury News when Mitchell was a business columnist.

Hillan continued, “Jim provided the steady reminder that San Jose used to be orchards.”

Mitchell was important to business journalism during this time because he helped his audience to remember where San Jose used to be, and there is value providing this perspective. This is what set Mitchell apart from the rest of the journalists covering Silicon Valley.

In 1984, Mitchell was the president of SABEW. As president, he oversaw the expansion of its headquarters at the University of Missouri. The following year he went to Stanford to study as a Knight Fellow.

Mitchell had a long and successful career. Mitchell led and developed the business department up until the early ‘90s during a significant transition of growth. He left the Mercury News when he felt as if the transition was complete, and he wanted to spend time with his family.

“Everybody enjoyed his company. He was very wise and experienced,” said Hillan.

In January of 2005, Mitchell died of salivary gland cancer. He is survived by his two sons, Jack and Rob.

Katie McNulty is a native of Barrington, Ill., and an advertising major in the Class of 2015 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.