Letter from the Editor: We’re investing in business news

Previous 12 months about this time, we introduced on a project to appear at the issues confronting downtown Portland soon after (we’d hoped) the height of the pandemic and protests. That venture, “Downtown in Distress,” involved reporting on homelessness, the mood of downtown people and the problems for suppliers, as nicely as outcomes from an impartial poll.

The delta and omicron variants threw a wrench in expectations for a quick return to standard in 2021. And just a 7 days in the past, more terrible information. A longtime retailer, Margulis Jewelers, declared it was closing its landmark downtown shop.

“Customers are hesitant to appear downtown to store,” owner David Margulis reported in a news release. “Employees decide on not to function downtown.”

It’s obvious that a lot more than two a long time into the pandemic, Portland has important economic problems. And The Oregonian/OregonLive proceeds to spend in company reporting.

“We’re mobilizing around a target to cover all elements of Oregonians’ fiscal life, from the outcomes of the point out and countrywide financial system, to shopping for merchandise and providers, to housing, individual finance, and function existence,” explained Elliot Njus, who potential customers our Business enterprise & Financial system workforce.

Njus previously included true estate/housing, transportation and other subjects. Most not long ago, he led the progress of podcasts for our newsroom.

Protection of two important companies in our region falls to veteran business enterprise reporters Mike Rogoway and Jeff Manning.

Rogoway is Oregon’s indispensable examine for news about Intel, just one of the state’s largest private companies. At the begin of the pandemic, he nearly singlehandedly birddogged the troubles the Oregon Employment Section experienced getting jobless benefits to Oregonians.

With politics reporter Hillary Borrud in 2020, he broke the tale of how Oregon’s failure to waive a week’s hiatus before gains begun would value Oregonians much more than $100 million in federal aid. The governor promptly vowed to remove the “waiting 7 days.”

Rogoway, who has a master’s of business administration from College of Washington, also addresses technologies, computer software and relevant firms. He retains an eye on emerging organizations as effectively, this kind of as Dutch Bros, the push-through coffee chain that had its original general public supplying last yr.

Manning handles Nike, as properly as similar organizations and the intersection of athletics and organization. He also experiences on well being care businesses and specializes in investigative function with an eye toward white collar criminal offense.

Jamie Goldberg, who experienced included the Portland Timbers/Thorns and the Portland Path Blazers for us, transferred to business enterprise when sports shut down at the get started of the pandemic in 2020. She has put in the earlier two yrs covering the unemployed, the plight of tenants and landlords, and the struggles and successes of tiny businesses.

Goldberg, who has a master’s diploma in journalism from University of California, Berkeley, is also a breaking news editor component of the week.

A further relative newcomer to the team is Jayati Ramakrishnan, who joined The Oregonian/OregonLive in 2019 from the Hermiston Herald. She commenced on the breaking news staff but now covers transportation and housing. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon University of Journalism and Communications.

Just this thirty day period, we’ve included even much more reporting firepower. Kristine de Leon covers retail, small business enterprise and other business developments for us, this sort of as her the latest explainer on why gasoline selling prices range so a lot depending on which Oregon county you are in.

De Leon was pursuing a Ph.D. in microbiology in advance of catching the reporting bug. She earned her master’s in journalism from University of Southern California. She is experienced in facts investigation, coding and website improvement, which will provide her effectively as she explores enterprise and economic traits.

When I started out at The Oregonian in 1983, the Business office, like the rest of the newsroom, was predominantly staffed by adult men. What couple girls reporters we had were generally in the options department, composing for the Residing area. It is great to have a group of Company reporters with these kinds of numerous life encounters, perspectives and interests.

The team’s get the job done is supplemented by other reporters, these kinds of as Ted Sickinger, who addresses forestry and utilities Borrud, who stories on state govt and politics and Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, who is on the Portland Metropolis Corridor defeat.

We know curiosity in enterprise subject areas is powerful. We can see that by the large figures of people who browse article content on OregonLive and abide by us on social media (On Twitter, @OregonianBiz has the next greatest next soon after our most important account). You can indicator up for our Oregon Enterprise Insights newsletter at oregonlive.com/newsletters.

The Oregonian/OregonLive’s employees left our downtown places of work and went to distant get the job done March 17, 2020. This spring, we expect some journalists will return to our workplaces along Southwest Initial Avenue and other folks will proceed to function remotely. I hope to see our reporters and editors back viewing workplaces, masking events, and assembly resources for espresso face to deal with, just as normally as we made use of to. I’m wanting forward to paying additional of my time in our downtown newsroom again.

Notice: Longtime Oregon civic chief Gerry Frank was asked to write a column for The Oregonian again in 1988. His column, named “Friday Surprise” after the Meier & Frank profits by that name, appeared in the A portion for lots of a long time.

A lot more not long ago, in the attributes portion, his well-liked regular column highlighted Oregon vacation and dining prospective customers for audience. Frank died March 13 at age 98. We know visitors will overlook his informative recommendations and insights, as will we.