Last month, Boston Globe Editor Brian McGrory put out a call to staff seeking a name for the paper’s forthcoming business section, which to his “chagrin” was called “Business”.
A few weeks and “a series of exhausting brainstorming sessions” later, the paper decided to go with the original name, Globe Business Editor Mark Pothier tells Poynter via email.
“There were suggestions like Currency, Work, Trade…all of which were too limiting, and I suspect would have grown tired quickly,” Pothier wrote. “There’s a reason why most papers have stayed with ‘Business.'”
The section, which débuted Thursday, represents the paper’s effort to keep pace with an “unprecedented surge in commercial and residential development” that has swept through Boston, Pothier writes. It was developed to feel like a magazine but remain “rooted in news,” with a number of standing features buttressed by digests of daily breaking coverage.
“Beyond striking that balance, we want to reflect the fact that ‘business’ today is about much more than profits and losses,” Pothier writes. “We want to write about the power players and what motivates them — beyond money — as well as those left out of our slow-motion economic recovery. Numbers only reveal a small piece of most business stories. Our coverage isn’t just about what people do for work, but how they do it, where they do it, what they do before and after work.”
The paper added staff in advance of Thursday’s launch, hiring Boston Business Journal managing editor Jon Chesto and “All Things Considered” host Sacha Pfeiffer.
Pothier, who used to be in the band Ministry, writes that there’s likely more hiring to come.
“We had a couple openings to fill, but on top of that we’ve added two reporters and an editor, and we’re probably not finished,” Pothier writes.
“Business” will run as its own standalone section Tuesdays through Fridays and on Sunday, according to a press release from The Globe. The University of Massachusetts — which recently bought a front-page wrap from the paper — is sponsoring the launch.
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