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'You won't get to know finance on a journalism degree course'

Posted: 20/08/09 By: Alexander Davidson

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To become a financial journalist is to enter a broad field. You can write about the stock market or retail finance, like pensions, investment funds and similar; or commercial insurance, capital markets or a variety of other areas, including economics.

Financial journalists tend to specialise, which means you can make your name fast.

You don't know about business and finance? You don't understand numbers? Listen, it doesn't matter. You learn on the job - and, more than in some areas of journalism, what counts is your intellectual grasp of the subject. And you won't get to know about finance by sitting on a journalism MA or even an NCTJ course.

I'm not saying these are of no help - this is, after all, journalism - but only that these are not the important thing. Assuming you are willing to dig, to ask questions, and to be active in pursuit of stories, your interest in the subject matter and your eventual understanding are what counts. Many who flourish in financial journalism could not make it in local newspapers.

In the City, particularly, you tend to deal with articulate, highly educated people, who tend to be polite and are willing to explain things.

I happened to get into financial journalism because I'd worked for a while as a share dealer in the City first, and that gave me some knowledge. Once I was in, I took industry exams. If you aim at working as a financial journalist, where there is less competition than in other spheres of journalism, I recommend that you concentrate on developing an interest in the City and financial world.

A good first step is to read my latest book, 'The Times: How the Global Financial Markets Really Work' (Kogan Page). It gives an easy-to-read explanation of how the City, Wall Street and other global markets have suffered in the global crisis and how they work now. But I would say that, wouldn't I?

Another useful tip is to do one of the basic exams set by the Securities and Investment Institute. They are open to everyone, and you can buy a home study course, or attend external training.

Read the financial press. The Financial Times is best, but you can get a lot of mileage from the financial pages of any national newspaper. The Economist, Investors Chronicle and Moneywise are worth reading. Much of the financial world - products, behaviour and events - is currently focused on the financial crisis. You can learn about this, and much else, simply by watching financial programmes on TV, or Bloomberg TV on Youtube.

I offer two caveats: first, it is hard to transfer from financial journalism to, for example, interviewing film stars, and, for that matter, the reverse. The more experience you get, the harder it becomes.

Second, not all financial journalists see the job as I do. The financial news agencies, for instance, put speed of action, skills at technology and sociability above knowledge of the subject.

I'll tell you something else: many people who have arts degrees, like I do, now work in financial journalism, where they have the time of their lives and are well paid for it - better than in most other forms of journalism at a similar level. The trade press can be a route onto the nationals if you want this, although many don't. And - I'm sorry to offend the purists - but for this job, many get by without shorthand or NCTJ qualifications.

In this job, I have regularly travelled the world, from Florida to Moscow to Korea, and I have indulged my love of investigative work and got my teeth into intellectually fascinating topics. I have written books and articles for the national press as a freelance and never been out of work. And – guess what? – I've never gone near a college course in journalism.

Alexander Davidson is a senior editor at Complinet, a subscription news service specialising in regulation and compliance.

A published author, some of his financial books are recommended reading on university undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Alexander is contactable through his website www.flexinvest.co.uk. His latest book, 'The Times: How Global Financial Markets Work', is for anybody who wants to enter or progress in financial journalism. You can also see him talking about his work in this video clip.

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