CLEVELAND — TABPI is associated with a new book that explores what b2b editors can do for their industries and how they can affect change. Journalism That Matters: How Business-to-Business Editors Change the Industries They Cover (Marion Street Press, Oak Park, Ill.: ISBN: 1933338083) looks at 17 stories of change-making journalism by trade and association publication editors. Among them:
* How the U.S. Department of Defense came clean on weaknesses in its computer network after a report by Federal Computer Week.
* How London-based Legal Business shook up the tradition-bound U.K. judicial system by exposing broad discontent among lawyers with one of the country’s most important courts
* How federal agencies stepped up their verification of job applicants after Government Computer News uncovered egregious resume padding by a top U.S. Department of Homeland Security IT official.
“We selected stories from a wide range of b2b and association publications to showcase the power of trade journalism,” says Steven Roll, co-editor of the book and president of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE). “We include pieces from traditional trade magazines and tabloids, newsletters, association publications, peer-reviewed association journals, and publications that sit in the nexus between trade and the consumer publications, like PC World.”
The book is designed as a compilation of best practices for professional editors, but it’s also a window into the world of business reporting for journalism students. “It may wake up some journalism professors to inspire young students to join the trade press,” Don Ranly, professor emeritus, Missouri School of Journalism, says in the book’s foreword.
The book is set to make waves. Its case studies are by editors who are members of, or have had their work recognized by, ASBPE and TABPI.
“We’re showing that trade journalism is journalism that matters,” says co-author Robert Freedman, immediate past president of ASBPE. “Trade editors are changing the face of the industries they cover by running stories that shake up the status quo and lead to innovation.”
More on the book is available here.