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April 2007 - Posts

Monday, April 30, 2007 7:17 PM

Back to Hong Kong -- and this time, it's personal

In three hours, the kids and I are leaving for Shanghai's Pudong airport to catch a flight to Hong Kong. I was just in Hong Kong last week, but that was for a financial conference.This week, it's for vacation. It's the second year in a row that I'm taking
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Monday, April 30, 2007 2:05 AM

Another glimpse into the works of state-owned media in China

For another view of working in China, by 24-year-old charlie Gidney, who writes for the China Daily, check out his blog Positive Solutions.In Sunday's post Boxes he talks about the various constraints that the English-language state-owned media are under.
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Saturday, April 28, 2007 3:12 PM

A Russian artist in Shanghai

I met an interesting artist today at a private showing at a friend's house. He was in China for just a few days, on his way home to St. Petersburg, Russia from Osaka, Japan.Georgii Kovenchuk's paintings have been condemned in the old Soviet Union for
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Friday, April 27, 2007 5:32 PM

The man who launched a dozen magazines

Thursday night was our weekly Cotton's Bar drinks get-together. One of  our new visitors was a man who launched twelve magazines.Twelve magazines!And in not a single case did a journalist make the move to publisher. I only know one man who did --
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 26, 2007 5:44 AM

Back from Hong Kong

I was in Hong Kong this week for a conference, thus no postings -- for some reason, I couldn't reach the SPJ.org website from my hotel. I do love to travel, but traveling is a lot more fun when you only have a little work to do. Just enough work to feel
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Sunday, April 22, 2007 3:33 AM

Looking for a managing editor

Two different investors are offering me money to go directly to print with my new magazine (Emerging China, which covers business in central and western China) instead of starting just online first.Even though it will be more work, we will probably do
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Friday, April 20, 2007 2:49 PM

Blog envy

I went to the Shanghaiist drinking beer thing tonight at Henry's Bar and Grill. I took pictures. Mostly, of guys standing arounding drinking beer. And one picture of a toilet in the ladies' room (Henry's has one of those things with heated seats and a
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 19, 2007 3:13 PM

Cotton's Bar is my new hiring hall

Tonight at the foreign correspondents' get-together at Cotton's Bar on Anting Lu, I offered jobs to three people.The first, Connie, was sharp as a tack, smart, organized, a finance student at Fudan University who's interested in a journalism career --
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 3:09 AM

I miss my junk TV

Writing about financial technology all day and editing Asia payments stories, when I relax, I want to relax all the day. I want to vegg out in front of the TV and watch re-runs of Friends and the Simpsons. I want to watch The Office. And catch the latest
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 2:45 AM

Chinese media reaction to Virginia Tech gunman story

For a little while yesterday, there was a rumor that the gunman may have been a Chinese student who got his visa in Shanghai. Chris O’Brien, a "language polisher" for the state-owned Xinhua News Agency dissects the reaction of the official government
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 2:30 AM

Go to Germany for ten months

Just starting out in your career? Looking for a way to go overseas? The folks over at the Council for International Exchange of Scholars asked me to let everyone know about a Fulbright grant for young journalism professionals. "The Fulbright
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 11:13 AM

Pulitzer board picks China stories second year in row

More proof that here in China, we're covering the biggest business story on the planet. This year, for the second year in a row, a Pulitzer was awarded for China coverage. This year, the Wall Street Journal got the prize. Here's a link to the winning
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 10:38 AM

Shanghai or Beijing?

When first coming to China, we had to make a decision: Shanghai or Beijing? (Other cities weren't even under consideration.)I picked Shanghai because it has a stock exchange, and Beijing doesn't. I cover the securities industry. And I hate politics. But
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Monday, April 16, 2007 2:31 PM

Sleep sweet sleep

Working in two -- or more -- time zones takes a toll. I need to stay up late many nights to talk with editors, interview sources in the US and Europe, rewrite stories on deadline, and deal with US-based staffers. For a couple of weeks now, I've had several
posted by MariaTrombly | 1 Comments
Saturday, April 14, 2007 2:53 PM

What I look for in a resume

Since I'll be hiring for a few positions over the next couple of months, I'm already looking at resumes.Here is my -- very subjective -- list of things I look for:Nice layout. Now, this has nothing to do with how good a reporter an applicant is. After
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Saturday, April 14, 2007 9:13 AM

Beware of your blog

Today, a job applicant sent me a resume in English (and very nice job, well formatted - the resumes I'm getting have improved a lot, just in the three years that I've ben here in China). She also sent me a link to her Chinese-language blog. I sicced
posted by MariaTrombly | 2 Comments
Saturday, April 14, 2007 8:51 AM

Managing foreign staff -- using Google Translate

Today a writer who speaks no English sent me an email in Chinese. I read it using Google Translate and sent him a reply -- using Google Translate to translate my answer into Chinese. He had pitched a story about the labor problems McDonald's has been
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Friday, April 13, 2007 3:00 AM

Living vicariously through other people's blogs

I've often fantasized about the cool life I would someday lead... in Moscow, in Paris, in Kabul. And I regularly reminisce about the cool times I had -- in Moscow, in Paris, and in Kabul. But, depressingly, when you're actually living it, live becomes
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 12, 2007 4:33 AM

Why Britney Spears' bare bottom is a good thing

Yesterday, I met a man who bemoaned the state of US media, and its obsessive focus on the minutia of celebrity lies and other distractions.Or at least I think he did -- I launched into my speech without letting him finish making his point.You see, he
posted by MariaTrombly | 1 Comments
Wednesday, April 11, 2007 3:42 PM

Hiring again

I'm starting yet another recruiting cycle tomorrow. This month, I'm looking for a new full-time finance reporter. Next month, I'll be hiring someone with a biology or life sciences background. Both are entry-level positions -- low pay, long hours. I haven't
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 2:13 PM

Letting go of war

There was a great story in the LA Times today -- Reporter recalls the layers of truth told in Iraq (thanks, Lauren, for bringing it to my attention).The part that particularly struck me was when Borzou Daragah, the LA Times former bureau chief in Baghdad,
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Monday, April 09, 2007 8:16 AM

My "movie star" theory of expat dating

I recently met a couple of expat women here in Shanghai who've given up on datting. I'm sure there are plenty of women (and men) back home as well who've given up, but when you're overseas the problems feel worse. You have less in common with the people
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Saturday, April 07, 2007 3:40 PM

The perils of investigative journalism in China

In the previous post, I included a link to the EastSouthWestNorth blog, which translates some of the more interesting stories from Chinese newspapers into English. Certainly puts the business reporting that I do into perspective.From recent posts:The
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Saturday, April 07, 2007 3:17 PM

Nice bit of investigative journalism by Chinese reporters

Here is the translation of a report about a bit of investigative journalism into KFC and McDonald's wage problems in the south of China. (Thanks to Fons Tuinstra for bringing it to my attention.)It details how a journalist and student interns went undercover
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Friday, April 06, 2007 2:25 AM

Associated Press links to Chinese blogger

I don't know how long this has been happening, but I just noticed that the Associated Press quoted a Chinese blogger on a story (about a famous house in the south of China that developers could not demolish and that stuck out for three years like a nail
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Friday, April 06, 2007 2:04 AM

Bribing reporters now illegal in China

On Tuesday, the Chinese government issued a degree making it illegal to bribe journalists to run (or not run) stories. Here's the China Daily story.I don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand: bribery - bad. Ethics - good.On the other hand - freedom
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 05, 2007 2:55 PM

More drinking with the journos

Just got back from another night at Cotton's Bar, drinking with the other expat journalists in town. The usual gang was there. The famous Shanghai novelist autographed copies of her book.The guy starting the new Speakers Bureau was going around signing
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 05, 2007 7:40 AM

How to get people to talk to you on the telephone

Being out here in China, where there's a huge shortage of experienced English-speaking business reporters, I frequently have to hire staff with no reporting experience at all and train them up from scratch.The first question every since new hire has is:
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 04, 2007 2:07 PM

Setting up a database (warning: technical details inside)

This is going to be a bit of a technical post, for those setting up a relational database for their own freelance writing workflow, or hiring someone to do it for them.This is only for those freelancers who need to eke out every last dollar from the time
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 03, 2007 6:04 AM

Feeding the news appetite with RSS

Every day, Alex Dai, one of my full time employees, spends about an hour an a half looking for stories for the next day's news feeds. He needs to find about 14 to 15 potential story ideas, based on local newspapers, press releases, government announcements,
posted by MariaTrombly | 1 Comments
Tuesday, April 03, 2007 5:21 AM

I wish I had (a) Second Life

I'm writing an article this week about Saxo Bank opening a brokerage service in Second Life, an online three-dimensional virtual reality. Everyday, the place is turning into an ever more functional and more complete world. You can make money there --
posted by MariaTrombly | 0 Comments