Category: 2015

Students in American University’s Discover the World of Communication professional news-writing program visited on Wednesday Bloomberg’s Washington D.C. news headquarters to see how a professional media outlet runs.

The professionalism of the Bloomberg offices gave the aspiring journalists high expectations for their future careers.

“If I weren’t interested in sports I could definitely see myself working there,” said DWC student Sam Goldfarb, 15.

Students arrived at the New York Avenue office building in downtown Washington and took the elevator up to the top floor. At its district branch, Bloomberg has offices on the 8th, 10th and 11th floors.

“All Bloomberg offices are on the top floor,” said Margaret Talev, 43, Bloomberg’s White House correspondent.

At Bloomberg bureaus Talev explained the company always occupies the top floor, has an aquarium and displays fresh flowers.

Students also noted that journalists were grouped into cubicles based on the subject they cover. Each person had two monitors: one with Bloomberg’s internal system and another used to write articles or access the internet.

“It was a lot bigger than I expected,” said Goldfarb, who had previously visited Comcast Sportsnet’s D.C. offices.

The 11th floor is home to TV and radio personnel, as well as the snack bar and makeup room. Tours aren’t open to the public, but the staff created a welcoming environment for the students and encouraged them to ask questions.

Students had to remain quiet as they passed by one man reading out stock information into a microphone as he concluded a radio broadcast.

After visiting the snack bar, students took the stairs down to the 10th floor, where the print journalists work, and where the television studio is housed. Students visited the TV studio and observed the teleprompters and microphones that are central to a television operation.

The print journalists’ offices share the same cubicle layout as the 11th floor. Columns dispersed among the cubicles were wallpapered with news articles.

On the 8th floor, students met with famed Bloomberg journalist Albert Hunt. Hunt spent 39 years at T

he Wall Street Journal before moving to Bloomberg news in 2005.

Hunt gave students a key piece of writing advice: be concise and simple.

“If I don’t understand a story in the first three paragraphs the odds are I’m going to stop reading it,” Hunt said.

Hunt encouraged students to pursue journalism because it allowed writers to meet people from a variety of backgrounds.

“In journalism, everyone you meet is interesting,” said Hunt.

Discover the World of Communication students sat in on a question and answer session Wednesday with some of Bloomberg’s top staff at the company’s Washington D.C. headquarters.

Students had the opportunity to meet writers, editors and analysts to find out about their background in journalism.

Margaret Talev welcomed the group with a tour of the building which started on the television floor and then proceeded to the newsroom. After the tour, students were taken to a board room to meet the staff.

As Talev stressed the importance of making connections, long-time friend and colleague, Al Hunt entered the room. Hunt spent 39 years at The Wall Street Journal and then joined the Bloomberg team 10 years ago.

Students questioned him about the triumphs and tribulations of his career.

He revealed covering business stories during the first year of his career was most difficult for him because of their complexity. He went on to cover taxes and ultimately politics.

“I have a confession; I like politicians,” said Hunt, rousing a laugh from his audience. Hunt finds taxes most fascinating because of their complicated nature; he likes to know “who gets what.”

Despite coming from various backgrounds, all of the journalists at Bloomberg can agree that the world of journalism is changing. The practice has transformed drastically since they began and with be completely different when the students pursue it as a career. But that shouldn’t discourage hopeful reporters from going for it.

Hunt told the story of how he originally started off as a journalist. He was speaking with James Reston and mentioned he was considering either journalism or law. Reston turned to him and said, “That’s an easy one: choose journalism.”

Back in the 11th floor conference room, Peter Russo introduced himself and explained his role in managing campaign information and lobbying data. Russo said he collects data to help tell a story.

Mike Shepard, a deputy managing editor, followed Russo. He has covered the White House, Congress and the Defense Secretary. He spent 22 years at The Washington Post and has been with Bloomberg for five.

Loren Duggan graduated with a degree from American University’s School of Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences. Duggan said a journalism degree is not required to be in the journalism field. He works for Bloomberg Government, looking at bills passed by Congress and summarizes them for his readers.

“You have 535 people competing for attention,” Duggan said of Congress.

Talev relayed the importance of starting from the bottom and working up. She started as a columnist for her school paper in addition to covering state politics in Florida. She later moved on to the Los Angeles Times and eventually came to the district.

By the end of the visit, students were motivated to go out and continue pursuing careers in journalism.

DWC student Madeline Jarrard, 17, said that the most important thing she got out of Wednesday’s visit was the genuine conversation she shared with the professionals.

“This is going to push me to work in an office like that some day,” Jarrard said.