Edward Greenspon is a managing editor at Bloomberg overseeing the global energy, environment and commodities industry group. His responsibilities include managing editorial projects and coverage with an eye toward more ambitious and complex journalism.
In Depth sat down with Edward to discuss his team’s consistently high-quality coverage — in particular, the group’s recent in-depth and breaking coverage of the Keystone pipeline.
Your team has a reputation for providing groundbreaking, in-depth storytelling on complex issues such as the politics surrounding the Keystone pipeline. Can you describe the process your team goes through to produce this type of coverage?
We produced three deeply reported, magazine-style accounts this year on the political and commercial machinations around pipeline proposals to the south, west and east from Alberta’s oil sands. The first one, on Keystone, took readers somewhere they rarely get to go — inside the relationship between U.S. President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Harper. That takes a lot of shoe leather. The reporters spoke to more than 75 people, some of them multiple times. Most weren’t authorized to speak on the record, so we had to keep cross-checking insights from one source with others also in a position to know. It’s a demanding process, but it led to a big payoff for the readers. And reporters are always happy when readers are happy. It’s the Iron Law of journalism.
How does your team manage to stay ahead of the competition in reporting about issues like the Keystone pipeline?
Reporting leads to more successful reporting. By that I mean that when you’re constantly out in the field talking to sources, they are increasingly likely to tell you more and tell you first. Some of that comes from building trust and confidence between informed sources and reporters they can see are serious about the subject. Often, you gain benefit from the planned serendipity of putting yourself in the right place at the right time.
Many of the pieces that your team produces have a more narrative quality than typical breaking news articles. As an editor, how do you encourage your team to move beyond standard reporting?
I think readers look to us for an increasing number of things these days — being first, fast and accurate with breaking news is our bread and butter. Readers also want to know we are authoritative, meaning we can connect the dots. And finally, in this creative age in which we live, people tend to be increasingly appreciative of stories well told. They want their news reading to be a joy, not an obligation.
What’s your favorite thing about reporting on the energy and commodity industries?
It’s that energy and commodities are so essential to the welfare of individuals, economies and nations. Human progress can be measured by innovations in energy, from early humans discovering fire to the way that electricity and gasoline allowed modern Western societies to gallop ahead. Human regression is also often tied to energy and commodities, particularly fears of shortages; think of how many wars are fought over oil and food. So this is consequential stuff. And with climate change, the issues are getting ever more important and their resolution all the more complex. A journalist couldn’t wish for more.