Very last calendar year about this time, we launched on a task to appear at the issues confronting downtown Portland right after (we’d hoped) the top of the pandemic and protests. That challenge, “Downtown in Distress,” included reporting on homelessness, the temper of downtown inhabitants and the issues for retailers, as very well as outcomes from an impartial poll.
The delta and omicron variants threw a wrench in anticipations for a quick return to regular in 2021. And just a week back, a lot more lousy news. A longtime retailer, Margulis Jewelers, announced it was closing its landmark downtown retail outlet.
“Customers are unwilling to occur downtown to store,” proprietor David Margulis claimed in a information launch. “Employees opt for not to do the job downtown.”
It is crystal clear that extra than two decades into the pandemic, Portland has substantial financial issues. And The Oregonian/OregonLive proceeds to invest in enterprise reporting.
“We’re mobilizing close to a target to protect all aspects of Oregonians’ economic life, from the effects of the state and nationwide financial state, to searching for items and providers, to housing, private finance, and get the job done everyday living,” said Elliot Njus, who potential customers our Company & Economic climate team.
Njus earlier included serious estate/housing, transportation and other subjects. Most not too long ago, he led the enhancement of podcasts for our newsroom.
Coverage of two big firms in our region falls to veteran business enterprise reporters Mike Rogoway and Jeff Manning.
Rogoway is Oregon’s indispensable browse for news about Intel, one particular of the state’s most significant personal businesses. At the begin of the pandemic, he just about singlehandedly birddogged the problems the Oregon Employment Section experienced receiving jobless benefits to Oregonians.
With politics reporter Hillary Borrud in 2020, he broke the story of how Oregon’s failure to waive a week’s hiatus right before rewards begun would price tag Oregonians additional than $100 million in federal relief. The governor immediately vowed to eliminate the “waiting 7 days.”
Rogoway, who has a master’s of company administration from College of Washington, also addresses technological know-how, software program and similar businesses. He retains an eye on rising organizations as properly, these kinds of as Dutch Bros, the drive-via coffee chain that experienced its original general public offering previous calendar year.
Manning handles Nike, as properly as linked organizations and the intersection of sporting activities and enterprise. He also reports on health treatment organizations and specializes in investigative do the job with an eye toward white collar criminal offense.
Jamie Goldberg, who had included the Portland Timbers/Thorns and the Portland Path Blazers for us, transferred to business enterprise when sports activities shut down at the commence of the pandemic in 2020. She has expended the earlier two a long time covering the unemployed, the plight of tenants and landlords, and the struggles and successes of little corporations.
Goldberg, who has a master’s degree in journalism from College of California, Berkeley, is also a breaking information editor section of the 7 days.
Another relative newcomer to the group is Jayati Ramakrishnan, who joined The Oregonian/OregonLive in 2019 from the Hermiston Herald. She begun on the breaking news staff but now handles transportation and housing. She is a graduate of the College of Oregon Faculty of Journalism and Communications.
Just this month, we’ve extra even additional reporting firepower. Kristine de Leon covers retail, compact enterprise and other business enterprise tendencies for us, these kinds of as her current explainer on why gasoline rates vary so substantially depending on which Oregon county you are in.
De Leon was pursuing a Ph.D. in microbiology right before catching the reporting bug. She gained her master’s in journalism from College of Southern California. She is competent in details assessment, coding and net growth, which will provide her perfectly as she explores organization and financial traits.
When I began at The Oregonian in 1983, the Organization section, like the relaxation of the newsroom, was predominantly staffed by guys. What couple women reporters we experienced were being principally in the capabilities department, creating for the Living portion. It’s good to have a group of Company reporters with these types of varied lifestyle encounters, views and passions.
The team’s work is supplemented by other reporters, this kind of as Ted Sickinger, who covers forestry and utilities Borrud, who reports on point out governing administration and politics and Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, who is on the Portland Town Hall conquer.
We know fascination in company matters is robust. We can see that as a result of the large quantities of people today who read through content on OregonLive and follow us on social media (On Twitter, @OregonianBiz has the second greatest subsequent immediately after our key account). You can sign up for our Oregon Small business Insights publication at oregonlive.com/newsletters.
The Oregonian/OregonLive’s workers remaining our downtown places of work and went to remote perform March 17, 2020. This spring, we hope some journalists will return to our offices alongside Southwest 1st Avenue and many others will carry on to work remotely. I hope to see our reporters and editors back checking out workplaces, covering situations, and assembly resources for espresso facial area to face, just as typically as we made use of to. I’m searching ahead to expending more of my time in our downtown newsroom once again.
Note: Longtime Oregon civic chief Gerry Frank was requested to publish a column for The Oregonian back in 1988. His column, named “Friday Surprise” after the Meier & Frank product sales by that name, appeared in the A section for a lot of yrs.
A lot more not long ago, in the features area, his well-known every month column highlighted Oregon travel and dining prospective customers for viewers. Frank died March 13 at age 98. We know viewers will overlook his enlightening suggestions and insights, as will we.