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Articles by Ryan Chittum | Email the Author
Opening Bell: Don’t Like Your Credit Rating?
Moody’s, S&P will fix it; Amtrak’s moment; “short squeeze” in oil market; domestic drillers want more; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 23, 2008 at 08:03 AM
The Wall Street Journal on its Money & Investing cover looks at another shady practice of the credit-ratings firms—switching out... More
Opening Bell: Happy Summer Driving!
Oil inventories down, prices up; air travel to get much worse; time to pull Pfizer’s antismoking drug?; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 22, 2008 at 07:30 AM
The price of oil continues to rise like an uncapped gusher, soaring 3.3 percent to more than $133 a barrel... More
Opening Bell: Thomson Atop Journal
On its way to being just another newspaper; military thinks green; small cities, no flights; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 21, 2008 at 07:37 AM
In a move that should surprise absolutely no one, Rupert Murdoch installed his pal Robert Thomson as the top editor... More
Opening Bell: Is Housing Bill Tough Enough?
May not ‘put a floor’ under the market; stimulus checks have little impact; former AOL execs indicted; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 20, 2008 at 07:44 AM
The Senate finally nailed down a deal on a housing bill, something The Wall Street Journal deems worthy of page... More
Opening Bell: Banks’ Creative Accounting
It’s all legal, and yet…; trouble in dairy land; Microsoft and Yahoo, round II; Chinese workers stay home; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 19, 2008 at 07:42 AM
Bloomberg says banks are “hiding” more than $35 billion in losses in (not so) plain sight. The wire service in... More
Opening Bell: Bad Numbers On Blackstone
Papers swallow company spin on losses; Dick Armey and Steve Forbes are angry renters; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 16, 2008 at 07:20 AM
(The headline for this post was corrected at 1:55 p.m.) Blackstone Group had a bad first quarter. Just how bad?... More
Opening Bell: Down The Rabbit Hole…
with Freddie and Fannie; bad week for Countrywide; what’s the truth about inflation?; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 15, 2008 at 07:52 AM
Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprise that along with Fannie Mae underpins the entire housing market, reported a smaller-than-expected $151 million... More
Opening Bell: Did We Dodge A Recession?
Conventional Wisdom now says yes, maybe; tax the rich, teach the vets; UBS official indicted; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 14, 2008 at 07:22 AM
Well, that was fast. The Wall Street Journal on page one says economists are hedging their bets on a recession,... More
Opening Bell: Clear Channel Deal On
Lawsuit avoided, pain is shared; cigarette regulation, Bush style; small-biz loan crunch; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 13, 2008 at 07:29 AM
Leveraged buyouts are back in the news this morning. The papers write that the Clear Channel Communications deal, which collapsed... More
Opening Bell: Payday Loan Scams
Not just for the poor anymore; the Dolans and Newsday; will Dems pay for helping home owners?; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 12, 2008 at 08:05 AM
The Chicago Tribune this morning reports on an insidious new phenomenon: online payday loans. One woman, Rochelle Parker, landed an... More
Opening Bell: Et tu, A.I.G.?
Plus, NYT strong work on NYT housing and a powerful senator; Toyota’s skids; the container shortage. etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 9, 2008 at 08:20 AM
Insurance giant American International Group posted a record $7.8 billion loss in the first quarter as it wrote down more... More
Opening Bell
SEC’s new rules; fluffing the mortgage numbers; Moody’s man out; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 8, 2008 at 07:48 AM
Stocks fell the most in four weeks, with the Dow dropping 206 points (1.6 percent) and financial shares tumbling 3.7... More
Opening Bell: Oil Prices Keep Rising…
But no one’s talking about using less; Myanmar’s rice harvest hit; greenback bulks up; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 7, 2008 at 07:15 AM
The price of oil continued its record rise, and the papers all give major play to stories on how much... More
Opening Bell: Countrywide Deal Hits Snag
Analyst urges B of A to bail; Sprint wants to unload Nextel; Fannie and Freddie need help; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 6, 2008 at 07:18 AM
Investors bailed out of Countrywide Financial yesterday, sending its shares down 10 percent after an analyst said Bank of America... More
Opening Bell: Yahoo To ‘Burn The Furniture’
If Microsoft went hostile; Buffett: we avoided worst of financial crisis; U.S. like S. Korea, 1997?
By Ryan Chittum May 5, 2008 at 07:11 AM
The business press goes wide with Microsoft backing away from its unsolicited bid for Yahoo, ending for the moment a... More
Opening Bell: The Fed Flashes Its Fangs
Cracks down on credit-card industry; is SUV era over?; ExxonMobil has another record quarter; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 2, 2008 at 07:21 AM
The Washington Post on A1 says the Federal Reserve and other bank regulators will unleash “one of the most aggressive... More
Opening Bell: Economy Expands, But…
just barely and it won’t last; another Fed rate cut; Rent-A-Center squeezes food banks; etc.
By Ryan Chittum May 1, 2008 at 07:20 AM
The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Financial Times all go big with news that the economy expanded—barely—in the... More
Opening Bell: Home Prices Plummet
No end in sight; FBI is after Countrywide; factory farms are bad; Citigroup panhandles; etc.
By Ryan Chittum Apr 30, 2008 at 07:47 AM
In today’s house-o-rama, home prices fell faster last month than at any time in a key index’s two decades, dropping... More
Opening Bell: $7 A Gallon?
Oil production not rising, but demand is; speculators swarm food crisis; Kerkorian buys up Ford stock…watch out; etc.
By Ryan Chittum Apr 29, 2008 at 07:29 AM
The New York Times on page one looks behind the inexorable rise in oil and gas prices the last few... More
Opening Bell: Will The Fed Wilt?
Mortgage industry cries foul over new regs; more Murdoch; hospitals demanding pay upfront; etc.
By Ryan Chittum Apr 28, 2008 at 07:18 AM
The New York Times fronts a story on how the mortgage industry is fighting tougher regulations proposed by the Federal... More
‘See you on the other side’ - Meet Jessica Lum, a terminally ill 25-year-old who chose to spend what little time she had practicing journalism
#Realtalk: This is the best moment to be in journalism - The old stuff isn’t coming back, but that’s okay
Streams of consciousness - Millennials expect a steady diet of quick-hit, social-media-mediated bits and bytes. What does that mean for journalism?
Sticking with the truth - How ‘balanced’ coverage helped sustain the bogus claim that childhood vaccines can cause autism
An ink-stained stretch - Can Aaron Kushner save the Orange County Register—and the newspaper industry?
What to do if you find a baby bird
Expert advice
Inside Google’s secret lab
We might deplore the practice, but posting pictures of our food online is a way to bring everyone to the table
How the ‘World’s 50 Best’ list changed the way elite restaurants do business
“Every time the restaurant switched up its format, it got plenty of accompanying media coverage that let judges know they needed to return to see what was going on”
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
