Q&A With Grove Potter, Executive Business Editor of The Buffalo News

Q&A With Grove Potter, Executive Business Editor of The Buffalo News

By Lois Whitehead, Public Relations Manager

Q: What do you feel sets your paper apart from others in New York state?
A: The Buffalo News is the largest paper in the state outside of the New York City metropolitan area. We cover the eight-county region of western New York, and in the business section, we focus almost exclusively on local businesses and financial issues, using wire services to supply national and international coverage. We also have a veteran newsroom staff that knows the region extremely well and is in tune with most of what is going on. One other thing that differentiates us from other newspapers is that we are not part of a newspaper chain; we are an independently operated division of Berkshire Hathaway.

Q: How do you feel the world of accounting has changed on your pages?
A: Accounting has always provided the bedrock upon which business coverage is built, from quarterly earnings reports, balance sheets, and income and cash flow statements. But in the past five years or so, accounting has become THE story. Revelations about the pressure some accountants feel to make a company’s numbers look good, and the conflicts inherent when accounting firms provide business consulting services to their clients, have been a blow to the public perception of the profession. However, as the large-scale frauds—Enron, WorldCom and Adelphia—recede into the past, I think people believe that most of the numbers companies provide are accurate. Sarbanes-Oxley has comforted many investors with the belief that the worst has been exposed and repaired. On a more local level, the convergence of accounting, investment advice and even insurance sales has created more competition in the financial services community.

Q: How have the business pages changed over the past years?
A: The evolution of the personal investor has made financial information more valuable that ever before. Business pages are no longer for an elite investor class. With Social Security changes looming and pensions being converted to 401(k) plans, more people need financial information. Business sections have adapted, devoting more space to personal finance stories. In addition, we have devoted more attention to small business owners and entrepreneurs as their roles in the local economy have grown. Information on running a small office or developing a tax strategy may be similar for a variety of businesses. We want to write stories that give business people ideas that they may be able to use.

Q: What areas highlight your pages, during the week and on Sunday?
A: On Mondays we run a local feature called “Strategies for Success” in which we examine a local company and try to explain its strategies. The idea is that techniques and approaches used in one business will be applicable to others. Rather than present it in a direct “how to” explanatory style, such information is more interesting when it is part of a person’s story. On Monday we publish “The Link,” our technology and consumer section. We carry a daily stock market report with two full pages of stock agate, Tuesday through Saturday, and three pages of stock agate on Sunday. We also print local items each day about individual promotions and company accomplishments. We have a large Sunday section, featuring one or two local stories, a local business columnist and a wire report highlighting major financial news. We also run the Wall Street Journal Sunday section on personal finance.

Q: What reporters are on the business desk?
A: We have five reporters who cover a variety of beats, including personal finance, local public companies, economic development, banking, insurance, accounting, retail, consumer news, real estate, grocery stores, construction, labor, telecom and high-tech.