Following is a Q&A with Kelly Greene, staff reporter, retirement planning, The Wall Street Journal:
By Greg Shemitz
Q: What’s your background as a journalist? What are your responsibilities at the Wall Street Journal?
A: I have been a reporter for 15 years. My first paper was the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina, where I worked right after college, mainly covering local governments and crime for the state desk. I did a bit of work — I wish I had done more — looking at the first big wave of Latino immigrants moving to North Carolina in the early 1990s. From there, I went to business journals in Greensboro and Charlotte, then Atlanta. I was drawn to business reporting because I thought it would be more interesting to cover what people do 99 percent of their lives — not the weird stuff that constitutes much of the crime and government reporting making headlines in local newspapers.
My first big story, in the Business Journal of Charlotte, showed that the governor’s economic slush fund, which doled out money to companies in exchange for job creation, was spending the money but getting few of the promised jobs in return. For a very short time in 1996, I was the Southeast bureau chief for American Banker before joining The Wall Street Journal later that year. I worked for the Southeast and Florida Journal regional sections until they were shut down in 2000, and have had my current beat since January 2001.
Currently, I write for Encore, a six-times-a-year report that focuses on retirement planning and living. The report has grown significantly in size and stature in recent years, and my editors are continually raising the hurdle for cover stories, which I write for most issues. Every Saturday, I answer a reader’s question in our “Ask Encore†column. I write section-front stories about retirement and aging issues for the rest of the paper as well.
And, for the past year, my editor, Glenn Ruffenach, and I have been writing “The Wall Street Journal Complete Retirement Guidebook.” It comes out May 22.
Q: What types of stories are most likely to pique your interest? What kind of material should public relations people be on the lookout for?
A: My favorite stories are narratives highlighting the struggles many people share in later life. For example, one of my Encore covers described a family in which the patriarch unexpectedly lived to be 104 years old, and the way his longevity impacted his children’s and grandchildren’s lives, as well as his own, both financially and in their relationships. Many families are in that boat. I stumbled across that story while talking to a financial planner about something else, and I had been introduced to the planner by — you guessed it — a PR person. So, it pays to see if your clients have an interesting personal story, not just some sort of dry expertise — or if their clients have a great story.
Q: What recent projects have given you the most satisfaction or are most reflective of your work?
A: The book is a big accomplishment. We’re proud of the way it combines practical advice for retirees about tapping their nest eggs, taking care of their health, and figuring out fulfilling ways to spend all that new-found time. The cover is already up on Amazon, and we’re looking forward to finally having an answer when people ask us how they can find our past work in one place.
Q: What industry publications, Web sites and services do you refer to?
A: There are too many to mention: Ed Slott’s IRA Newsletter, the Mayo Clinic report for people who are 50-plus, and the Journal of Financial Planning are three that instantly come to mind. I also skim through a lot of monthly e-mail newsletters from groups like Experience Corps. Rarely do I get a full-blown story idea from such reading, however. I view such research as more of a survey to help me piece together the bigger picture.
Q: What do you like/dislike about dealing with PR people? Any tips you’d like to give them?
A: Believe me, we’re all well aware that boomers have started turning 60, and that they tend to change things. It’s already well established that people aren’t saving enough for retirement, that long-term care is expensive, and that people think they’re going to work until they’re 75 years old. We don’t need any more surveys paid for by the financial-services industry to establish these trends.
Also, if I call you seeking help finding additional examples of a trend that I have spotted and about which I already have started collecting evidence, please don’t tell me why/how I’m wrong just because you don’t have a client to whom it applies. Reporters in that situation are always grateful when, instead, you suggest people who you think might be able to help, and pass along current -email addresses and phone numbers for them.
And I cannot stress enough how critical it will be for PR people trying to work with Journal reporters to read the paper very closely for the next several months as we refine the redesign. There are going to be dramatic changes in the paper — and I believe that readers will be the winners. But there will be much less space for stories about surveys and such. We reporters are being challenged to do even more original, analytical work. So, it’s going to take even savvier on the part of PR people to merit a mention of their clients.
On a related note, our deadlines are getting tighter all the time. If we say we need something by 3 p.m., we mean 3 p.m. Keep in mind that we are feeding WSJ Online constantly, along with our Asian and European print editions.
Q: How and when do you prefer to be contacted?
A: In the morning. I’m typically at my desk by 9 a.m. E-mail or phone calls are fine. If you want to give me a long pitch, I would appreciate getting an e-mail first. That way, I can let you know beforehand whether it’s worth your time and mine.
Q: What’s the best way to send news releases to you? Mail, e-mail or fax?
A: E-mail is the fastest way.
Q: Do you accept photos/graphics/artwork? If so, how do you want to receive them? Any specific formatting requirements?
A: There’s no need to send art unless I ask for it. Our art editors require high-resolution photos and graphics that are at least 4″x6″.
Kelly Greene
Staff reporter/retirement planning
The Wall Street Journal
303 Peachtree St. NE
Suite 4200
Atlanta, GA 30308
E-mail: kelly.greene@wsj.com
Phone: (404) 865-4374
Web site: www.wsj.com