Gorkana, the market leader in global media intelligence, spoke to Claude Baumann, co-founder of finews.ch. The interview gives an impression of this year’s progress and the plans for 2016.
Mr. Baumann, tell us a bit about finews.ch: How does the website work and who are your readers?
finews.ch is an industry portal that is aimed at people working for banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions. We’re often referred to as the ‘intranet’ of the Swiss finance industry, because you can find everything that is going on in the world of finance on our website.
We cover all the relevant topics: news, job changes, expansions and cutbacks, as well as people’s stories, interviews, commentaries, assessments – right up to the popular listicles*.
We take our readers by the hand, so to speak, and guide them through the jungle that is financial news. Seven years ago, four of us started the website, now we are eleven people, seven of whom are reporters. We’ve been in the black for four years now. As far as I know, there aren’t too many news portals that can say that about themselves.
* listicles are articles presented in the form of numbered or bullet-pointed lists
When are your key editorial meetings?
Among ourselves, we often say that we’re the company that holds the most meetings. And in fact, alongside our daily editorial meetings at 9am, we also hold ad-hoc meetings in small groups several times a day so we can compare assessments, develop instant ideas for articles or make plans for the following day.
Through this an above average number of articles is developed out of team work. Everyone provides the responsible reporter with their ‘mosaic piece’ here and there. This way, our articles turn out to be more original, more competent and more prompt. In short, they offer surplus value in terms of content.
What would you say is the best part of your job?
Being able to ask all kinds of people all kinds of questions. And being a co-owner of finews.ch, the freedom of making decisions myself – even though there’s always a certain risk and responsibility to it as a publisher and employer.
What advice would you give to young journalists who would like to pursue a career in financial journalism?
I don’t want to sound old-fashioned. That’s why I’ll restrict myself to three tips: Firstly, never write about things you don’t understand yourself. Secondly, always write less than you know, not the other way around.
And thirdly, if you want to pursue a career in financial journalism, it’s probably best to start working at a newswire. You won’t get better training in journalistic skills anywhere else.
You have had a long career in journalism. What is your most memorable story?
It only happened to me recently: Last February I interviewed a hedge funds manager in Singapore. I took the opportunity to tell him that we were going to expand to Asia with finews.asia soon. The manager found this highly exciting and said he’d like to join in on the project with 10 million dollars and whether that would be enough.
I thought he was joking at first. He was serious though. This just shows the astronomical sums that are juggled within this industry. I told him I would think about it. I still owe him an answer. Maybe I should give him a call next week...
