Insights and main points presented at SABEW's 2025 gathering
News Article: SABEW Conference 2025 Highlights the Importance of Sourcebuilding and Innovative Journalism
The Society for Advancing Business and Editing Writing (SABEW) held its annual conference in Washington, D.C. from April 3 to April 5, 2025, attracting journalists, newsroom leaders, and students from across the country.
One of the key topics discussed was sourcebuilding, with Emily Glazer from The Wall Street Journal encouraging journalists to play the long game when building relationships. She emphasised the importance of being of value to sources and maintaining a reciprocal line of communication. Jason Leopold, senior investigative reporter at Bloomberg News, echoed this sentiment, highlighting the need for persistence, knowledge of rights, and potential legal involvement when preparing for the appeal process when submitting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
Ziva Branstetter, Senior Editor at ProPublica, stressed the importance of being relentless when submitting FOIA requests for business stories. She encouraged journalists to check the Bloomberg or Forbes billionaires indexes to find influential figures in a local community. E.B. Solomont from The Wall Street Journal suggested checking in with old sources during slow weeks.
Charla Freeland from The Washington Post recommended considering each platform's feed when deciding where to share coverage. More evergreen stories were suited for Instagram or TikTok, while fast-moving stories were better suited for X (formerly Twitter) or BlueSky. Jade Lawson, multimedia journalist at 7News, stressed the importance of considering platform presentation before reporting.
Jason Leopold also introduced his newsletter FOIA Files, which reveals new documents obtained from government agencies every week. Joseph Politano, an economic data journalist, exclusively publishes his work on his Substack newsletter Apricitas Economic, which has over 62,000 subscribers.
In addition to sourcebuilding and platform strategies, the conference also addressed the importance of humanising journalists and reducing mistrust towards institutional news media. Jeff Stain, chief economic correspondent at The Washington Post, and Joe Miller from the Financial Times both saw value in using social media for this purpose.
Katie Vogel, politics and D.C. editor at The Associated Press, stated that a successful social media post in the news industry can stand alone as a piece of journalism that the reporter and organization can stand behind. John Doe, who gave tips on monitoring abuse of power in one's own city at the conference, also emphasised the importance of being of value to sources.
In conclusion, the SABEW Conference 2025 highlighted the importance of maintaining a healthy and active source pipeline for any business story. The conference also underscored the need for journalists to be innovative in their approach to storytelling, platform presentation, and humanising themselves to reduce mistrust towards institutional news media.
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