George Lazarus, source: The Chicago Tribune

By Kathryn Auten

A young woman was reading the Chicago Sun-Times in the lobby of the Chicago Tribune’s editorial office. She was waiting to hand deliver a news release to George Lazarus.

When Lazarus left his office and approached her she put down the paper and handed him the news release. Lazarus then tore the press release to shreds and dropped them on the floor, said Bill Barnhart, co-worker of Lazarus at the Tribune, as he recalled the incident.

“You shouldn’t read the competition,” Lazarus responded.

Lazarus was a native of Worcester, Mass., and in 1954 he graduated with a bachelor of business administration from Clark University. In 1957, he received a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, according to the Tribune.

Before working at the Chicago Tribune, Lazarus worked at the Chicago bureau of The Associated Press until 1959 and then worked as editor at Printer’s Ink magazine. In 1961 he moved to the Chicago Daily News and then moved again eight years later to Chicago Today. Lazarus joined the Tribune in 1972, where he developed one of the first marketing columns in the nation.

While working at the Tribune, Lazarus wrote for Adweek’s Marketing Week and the New York Daily News. In addition, he wrote “Marketing Immunity” in 1998 and was a business commentator.

Lazarus established a reputation during the 28 years he worked as a marketing columnist for the Tribune. He was extremely competitive and wanted to be the first to break the news.

Cathy Grisham, currently creative director for Red Circle agency, said that he was the talk at the water cooler and said that you would hear “Have you read Lazarus yet?” said on a normal basis. Grisham has worked as an executive director for Campbell Mithun, creative director for DDB Chicago and associate creative director for FCB Chicago during Lazarus’s tenure.

“You had to read him. He could make you or break you,” said Grisham.

Everyone wanted George to write about them because he had a reputation, but if you broke your news to someone else he wouldn’t carry your story, said Vic Zast, who works on the executive management team for Tru Fragrence.

Zast became acquainted with Lazarus when he worked as senior vice president of marketing for Jim Beam. Zast was frequently mentioned in Lazarus’s column and played tennis with him.

“He had a little bit of a temper,” said William Sluis, a former associate business editor of the Tribune. Sluis was a close friend and Lazarus’s long-time editor even after leaving the Tribune.

A co-worker of Lazarus at the Tribune explained that Lazarus knew he played an important role in both Chicago and New York and that he also didn’t have to play nice to get the information he needed.

Lazarus took a different approach than most reporters. He refused to talk to public relations executives and talked primarily with executives. He developed close and valuable relationships with executives, and in return they would provide him with tips, which is considered an old-school journalism technique.

His competitive nature to be first in breaking the news sometimes intimidated those he would interview for the column.

“I wanted so badly to be in his column that I allowed him to be intimidating,” said Zast.

Zast took a tougher approach with Lazarus than most. Zast said that he became frustrated with Lazarus’s demands, so he turned the tables and told Lazarus that he did not care whether a story ran.

“By doing that I had much greater success in getting stories covered, and ultimately he contacted me,” said Zast.

“George stood his ground, and that’s a good rule for people in journalism,” said Sluis. “Journalists have a tendency to be too nice. We forget that we are doing this job for thousands of people. He had success because he never lost sight of that.”

He was meticulous and had a full-time secretary, unlike other writers, and kept files full of background and source cards and names, said a coworker at the Tribune. “I once told George that I wished someone with his skill was reporting on something more worthwhile,” said the co-worker.

“His profession defined him. It was his greatest pride,” said Zast.

Lazarus attended fundraisers and events in the evenings. The night before he died he attended a black-tie dinner. As he was leaving the newsroom on what would be his last day at work, the entire staff gave him a round of applause, a fitting exit for a legend.

Lazarus was found dead by a train employer on his way in from work Sept. 8, 2000. He was survived by his wife and two children.

“I don’t think anyone who has succeeded George has been as successful,” said Sluis. “There are some writers and journalist that you can’t replace and George was one of them.”

Kathryn Auten is a native of Kannapolis, N.C., and is a business journalism major in the Class of 2015 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Chet Currier

By Natalie Cooper

After the stock market crash in 1987, the market began to make itself more accessible to the general public. As interests rates fell, Americans began to take their money out of bank accounts and invest in the stock market. Mutual funds and 401(k)s grew in popularity, but investors needed someone to explain these markets to them.

Chet Currier was that person.

“That’s what Chet was put on earth to do,” said Jim Kennedy, former business editor at the Associated Press. “He was there when the market changed, and he led us all by the hand.”

Chet Currier reported on the markets for 37 years, writing for the AP from 1970 to 1999 and then Bloomberg News from 1999 to 2007. He was an institution in business journalism and pioneered reporting on the mutual fund market.

Described by former co-workers as a hard working perfectionist, Currier’s strongest asset was his ability to write with his audience in mind and convey financial news in a way that could be understood by the general public. Michael Millican, a former business editor at the AP, said Currier was able to cover Wall Street for many years without losing interest and enthusiasm in the topic, which was a rare gift.

Joyce Rosenberg, a former coworker at the AP, said: “He knew what his mission was: to report something in a way that people would be interested in so that they would understand it and want to keep coming back. He understood who he was writing for.”

Currier became the AP’s full-time Wall Street reporter in 1974. He wrote, “At that time, the Dow was sagging under 600, mutual funds were thought to be an endangered species, and the AP was just beginning to broaden its coverage of investing and personal finance.”

Currier reported Wall Street news during the day, publishing his first story of the day within 30 minutes of the market opening. He then wrote a Wall Street story every hour for the rest of the day. Millican said that in spite of the thousands of stories Currier wrote, he managed to keep them “fresh, insightful, accurate and concise.”

Additionally, Currier wrote three weekly columns on the markets and personal finance: Weekly Wall Street, Ticker Talk and On the Money. He started Ticker Talk in 1976 and On the Money in 1979. He revamped Weekly Wall Street, a long-time fixture of the AP.

Kennedy said that one of Currier’s main talents was his understanding of the long-term movements of the markets, and he approached every story with this bigger view in mind.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Americans began approaching investing differently and paying more attention to stocks and mutual funds. Kennedy moved Currier from reporting on the daily movements of Wall Street to reporting on mutual funds. Kennedy recalled that in Currier’s first mutual fund column, he explained what a mutual fund was. This column was a unique opportunity for Currier because he was able to introduce the mutual fund market to readers and bring them along with him as the column grew.

“People wouldn’t have the kind of awareness they have today without the foundation Chet built during those years,” said Kennedy. “Can you really credit that to one person? I think so. The AP was the one that was communicating with 1500 newspapers around the country. Chet Currier was the caretaker of that to the general interest reader. I knew in my head and my heart that he understood that was the role he was playing.”

In 1999, Currier received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. When he and co-worker John Cunniff were honored with this award, SABEW President Susan Wells said: “These two men have given nearly every paper in the country the opportunity to have depth and analysis in their business report, even if they had next to no business staff.”

At Bloomberg, Currier wrote two columns per week about mutual funds and personal investing. His last article was published on June 29, 2007.

One of Currier’s hobbies was writing crossword puzzles; he created more than 1,000 of them for the AP during his career. His son Craig Currier said he would spend weekend afternoons creating crossword puzzles by the pool.

“What impressed me most and what I try to emulate today is how his mind always seemed to be working on something,” said Craig Currier. “He had this way of mentally processing and computing things that I don’t think everybody has. It was thoughtful but also exact.”

Currier wrote and updated “The Investor’s Encyclopedia,” which helped the average investor understand the markets and how to approach investing. He also wrote three other books, “The 15-Minute Investor,” “Careers in the ‘80s” and “Careers in the ‘90s.”

Chet Currier was born in New York in 1945. He received his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, served in the Navy from 1966 to 1970, and worked at Fairchild Communications for a short period before joining the AP. He died in 2007 from prostate cancer; he was 62 years old.

Natalie Cooper is a native of New Orleans, La., and an economics major and business journalism minor in the Class of 2013 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Clare Reckert. Source: Bob Flaherty of Flaherty Financial News

By Jenny Surane

When Clare Reckert started at The New York Times, it was a boys club, and she was a secretary.

But that didn’t stop Reckert from pursuing her dream of becoming a journalist.

When many of the male reporters were drafted for World War II, Reckert took the opportunity to move into the newly available editorial and writing positions.

“She used whatever opportunity she could to get herself a foot in the door,” Randall Forsyth, Clare’s nephew and longtime editor at Barron’s, said.

Reckert, who is now recognized as one of the first female business journalists, started out using the byline of “C.M. Reckert.”

“She had to go to great lengths to make sure nobody knew her gender,” Forsyth said.

Reckert spent a lot of time doing “make-up” for The Times, so she designed the pages of the business desk.

And according to Reckert’s longtime friend and colleague Bob Flaherty, it was during one of these “make-up” sessions when Reckert spotted Orville Dryfoos, the publisher for the paper. She quickly told Dryfoos that she would like to have her byline with her story.

“He thought for a moment and said ‘yes,’” Flaherty said. “That’s how she became the first woman business journalist.”

Forsyth said an editor later let her use her full name as long as she dropped the “i” so she couldn’t be recognized as a woman.

“Forget about a glass ceiling, she had to kick down the door,” Forsyth said.

Forsyth said she never let her gender get in the way of her reporting, and that she often used it to cultivate new sources.

Forsyth said one of Reckert’s proudest moments was covering Ford Motor Co.’s earnings reports after the company first went public.

“She was able to get a hold of and publish those financials,” he said. “Which was great.”

Reckert went to great lengths not to disclose her sources, even to her nephew.

“I never did find out how she got that exclusive,” he said. “To get an insight into one of the richest family-run businesses in the world.”

Forsyth said Reckert also spent most of her time reporting on corporate earnings and mergers and acquisitions.

“She certainly did not have a formal background in finance,” Forsyth said. “She picked it up by asking questions.”

In the 1970s, Reckert set her sights on being inducted into the New York Financial Writers’ Association.

Up to that time, the association had been a men’s only club, much like the rest of Reckert’s profession.

But Reckert wouldn’t take it.

Every year, the association hosted a show titled “Financial Follies.” The event was male-only, and members of the association spent the evening lampooning major figures in finance and government.

Myron Kandel, a longtime colleague and friend of Reckert, said she decided to crash the party one year.

“Clare got dressed in a tuxedo, and I don’t know what she did with her hair, and crashed the dinner,” Kandel said. “She was a gutsy lady.”

Reckert later fought the organization for admittance, and, in 1972, she and fellow financial reporter Dorothea Brooks were accepted.

“Clare’s greatest contribution was that she was the first female financial writer,” said Jane Reilly, executive director for the New York Financial Writers’ Association.

Reilly said her organization now has a scholarship in Reckert’s honor.

Kandel, a founding financial editor for CNN, said once Clare was admitted to the association, she returned to the “Financial Follies” as one of the actresses in the show.

“I would describe Clare as gutsy, determined, hardworking who took no guff from anyone,” Kandel said.

Forsyth said Reckert didn’t stop after she was admitted to the association.

“She was also interested in helping other women advance,” he said. “For other women entering journalism, she felt like she should give them whatever help and guidance they needed.”

Forsyth said she also worked to make the gender gap less noticeable for her colleagues.

He said Reckert spent a lot of her time at The New York Times meeting new people, and trying to have as much fun with her co-workers as she could.

“She was one of the guys in the best way possible,” Forsyth said.

Forsyth said Reckert loved her job at the paper, and put off retirement as long as she could.

“She loved God and her family first,” Forsyth said. “But The New York Times was right up there.”

Jenny Surane is a native of Charlotte, N.C., a and a business journalism major in the Class of 2015 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.