Very last calendar year about this time, we introduced on a project to appear at the issues confronting downtown Portland right after (we’d hoped) the top of the pandemic and protests. That undertaking, “Downtown in Distress,” bundled reporting on homelessness, the mood of downtown residents and the worries for suppliers, as well as success from an unbiased poll.
The delta and omicron variants threw a wrench in anticipations for a quick return to normal in 2021. And just a 7 days in the past, much more undesirable information. A longtime retailer, Margulis Jewelers, announced it was closing its landmark downtown store.
“Customers are unwilling to arrive downtown to shop,” owner David Margulis mentioned in a news launch. “Employees pick not to do the job downtown.”
It’s apparent that additional than two several years into the pandemic, Portland has sizeable economic worries. And The Oregonian/OregonLive continues to invest in organization reporting.
“We’re mobilizing around a aim to protect all facets of Oregonians’ financial life, from the effects of the condition and national economic climate, to browsing for merchandise and services, to housing, private finance, and perform lifestyle,” stated Elliot Njus, who sales opportunities our Business & Overall economy crew.
Njus formerly covered genuine estate/housing, transportation and other topics. Most not too long ago, he led the improvement of podcasts for our newsroom.
Coverage of two big firms in our area falls to veteran small business reporters Mike Rogoway and Jeff Manning.
Rogoway is Oregon’s indispensable browse for information about Intel, one of the state’s most significant personal businesses. At the start of the pandemic, he virtually singlehandedly birddogged the challenges the Oregon Work Section had getting jobless added 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 ahead of gains commenced would value Oregonians far more than $100 million in federal relief. The governor swiftly vowed to eliminate the “waiting week.”
Rogoway, who has a master’s of enterprise administration from College of Washington, also addresses know-how, software program and linked organizations. He keeps an eye on rising organizations as well, such as Dutch Bros, the generate-through espresso chain that had its initial community featuring very last calendar year.
Manning handles Nike, as perfectly as relevant companies and the intersection of sports activities and organization. He also studies on wellness care enterprises and specializes in investigative work with an eye towards white collar criminal offense.
Jamie Goldberg, who had included the Portland Timbers/Thorns and the Portland Trail Blazers for us, transferred to small business when sporting activities shut down at the commence of the pandemic in 2020. She has spent the previous two yrs covering the unemployed, the plight of tenants and landlords, and the struggles and successes of smaller enterprises.
Goldberg, who has a master’s degree in journalism from College of California, Berkeley, is also a breaking information editor part of the week.
A different relative newcomer to the workforce is Jayati Ramakrishnan, who joined The Oregonian/OregonLive in 2019 from the Hermiston Herald. She started on the breaking information group but now addresses transportation and housing. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon Faculty of Journalism and Communications.
Just this month, we have added even extra reporting firepower. Kristine de Leon covers retail, modest company and other enterprise traits for us, this sort of as her the latest explainer on why gasoline selling prices vary so a great deal relying on which Oregon county you are in.
De Leon was pursuing a Ph.D. in microbiology right before catching the reporting bug. She attained her master’s in journalism from University of Southern California. She is proficient in info evaluation, coding and world-wide-web development, which will serve her perfectly as she explores company and economic traits.
When I started out at The Oregonian in 1983, the Small business section, like the relaxation of the newsroom, was predominantly staffed by adult men. What few women of all ages reporters we experienced were generally in the functions office, crafting for the Residing area. It’s good to have a staff of Business enterprise reporters with this kind of numerous lifetime encounters, perspectives and pursuits.
The team’s get the job done is supplemented by other reporters, these as Ted Sickinger, who covers forestry and utilities Borrud, who studies on state govt and politics and Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, who is on the Portland City Hall defeat.
We know interest in business matters is strong. We can see that by way of the large figures of people today who read article content on OregonLive and observe us on social media (On Twitter, @OregonianBiz has the second largest pursuing soon after our main account). You can sign up for our Oregon Enterprise Insights e-newsletter at oregonlive.com/newsletters.
The Oregonian/OregonLive’s personnel remaining our downtown workplaces and went to remote get the job done March 17, 2020. This spring, we hope some journalists will return to our places of work alongside Southwest Initially Avenue and many others will go on to get the job done remotely. I hope to see our reporters and editors again browsing workplaces, covering situations, and assembly sources for espresso facial area to deal with, just as usually as we used to. I’m hunting forward to expending far more of my time in our downtown newsroom all over again.
Notice: Longtime Oregon civic chief Gerry Frank was asked to create a column for The Oregonian back again in 1988. His column, named “Friday Surprise” right after the Meier & Frank revenue by that identify, appeared in the A section for numerous several years.
Far more recently, in the options area, his preferred regular column highlighted Oregon vacation and dining prospects for readers. Frank died March 13 at age 98. We know viewers will skip his instructive strategies and insights, as will we.
