Past 12 months about this time, we released on a job to search at the problems confronting downtown Portland after (we’d hoped) the top of the pandemic and protests. That undertaking, “Downtown in Distress,” included reporting on homelessness, the mood of downtown inhabitants and the troubles for stores, as well as outcomes from an impartial poll.
The delta and omicron variants threw a wrench in expectations for a swift return to regular in 2021. And just a 7 days ago, far more bad news. A longtime retailer, Margulis Jewelers, introduced it was closing its landmark downtown keep.
“Customers are reluctant to arrive downtown to store,” owner David Margulis explained in a information launch. “Employees pick not to operate downtown.”
It is very clear that much more than two many years into the pandemic, Portland has considerable economic troubles. And The Oregonian/OregonLive carries on to commit in business reporting.
“We’re mobilizing close to a aim to deal with all aspects of Oregonians’ monetary life, from the outcomes of the state and countrywide financial state, to shopping for merchandise and services, to housing, private finance, and operate lifetime,” reported Elliot Njus, who sales opportunities our Organization & Economic system workforce.
Njus beforehand lined true estate/housing, transportation and other subjects. Most just lately, he led the development of podcasts for our newsroom.
Coverage of two significant organizations in our region falls to veteran business reporters Mike Rogoway and Jeff Manning.
Rogoway is Oregon’s indispensable study for news about Intel, a person of the state’s premier private businesses. At the start off of the pandemic, he just about singlehandedly birddogged the troubles the Oregon Work Office had getting jobless advantages to Oregonians.
With politics reporter Hillary Borrud in 2020, he broke the story of how Oregon’s failure to waive a week’s hiatus before rewards commenced would charge Oregonians additional than $100 million in federal reduction. 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 know-how, software and similar firms. He keeps an eye on emerging enterprises as well, these kinds of as Dutch Bros, the travel-via espresso chain that had its initial general public featuring very last year.
Manning handles Nike, as very well as related organizations and the intersection of athletics and business. He also stories on wellbeing treatment firms and specializes in investigative get the job done with an eye toward white collar crime.
Jamie Goldberg, who experienced coated the Portland Timbers/Thorns and the Portland Trail Blazers for us, transferred to enterprise when athletics shut down at the commence of the pandemic in 2020. She has expended the past two decades masking the unemployed, the plight of tenants and landlords, and the struggles and successes of little firms.
Goldberg, who has a master’s degree in journalism from University of California, Berkeley, is also a breaking news editor component of the 7 days.
An additional relative newcomer to the crew is Jayati Ramakrishnan, who joined The Oregonian/OregonLive in 2019 from the Hermiston Herald. She commenced on the breaking information crew but now covers transportation and housing. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications.
Just this month, we have additional even more reporting firepower. Kristine de Leon addresses retail, compact enterprise and other business enterprise tendencies for us, such as her new explainer on why gasoline charges range so substantially depending on which Oregon county you are in.
De Leon was pursuing a Ph.D. in microbiology in advance of catching the reporting bug. She earned her master’s in journalism from College of Southern California. She is experienced in data assessment, coding and net advancement, which will provide her perfectly as she explores business and financial traits.
When I started off at The Oregonian in 1983, the Organization section, like the relaxation of the newsroom, was predominantly staffed by guys. What few girls reporters we had ended up primarily in the features division, creating for the Dwelling part. It’s terrific to have a group of Small business reporters with these assorted lifestyle activities, perspectives and pursuits.
The team’s function is supplemented by other reporters, these types of as Ted Sickinger, who addresses forestry and utilities Borrud, who reports on state authorities and politics and Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, who is on the Portland City Corridor defeat.
We know interest in business enterprise matters is potent. We can see that through the big figures of people today who browse content on OregonLive and comply with us on social media (On Twitter, @OregonianBiz has the second most important following right after our principal account). You can indicator up for our Oregon Enterprise Insights e-newsletter at oregonlive.com/newsletters.
The Oregonian/OregonLive’s workforce remaining our downtown offices and went to remote get the job done March 17, 2020. This spring, we anticipate some journalists will return to our workplaces together Southwest Initial Avenue and some others will continue on to operate remotely. I hope to see our reporters and editors back again viewing workplaces, covering functions, and conference sources for coffee experience to confront, just as often as we utilized to. I’m hunting forward to spending more of my time in our downtown newsroom all over again.
Notice: Longtime Oregon civic chief Gerry Frank was requested to write a column for The Oregonian again in 1988. His column, named “Friday Surprise” just after the Meier & Frank income by that identify, appeared in the A portion for numerous decades.
Much more not too long ago, in the options part, his well-known regular monthly column highlighted Oregon journey and eating potential customers for readers. Frank died March 13 at age 98. We know viewers will miss out on his informative guidelines and insights, as will we.