A note from our editor, Elizabeth MacBride: Starting a business is somewhat out-of-style right now, as a vehicle for making the world a better place. Liberal policymakers are focused on labor. The right-wing, which used to be at least a nominal champion of small businesses, has disintegrated. Some big foundations have moved on. In part, […]
Editor’s Note
Editor’s Note: Why Fund Strategic Journalism
A note from our editor, Elizabeth MacBride In March of 2020, as the pandemic was bearing down on us, Elaine Pofeldt (one of the top freelancers who works with Times of E) and I were covering the effect on small businesses across the country. We were among the few. Most of our peers in journalism were rightly […]
Editor’s Note: An Old-Fashioned Scoop
A note from our editor, Elizabeth MacBride: The Biden administration announced recently that the United States would accept as many as 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. That’s a sharp contrast to the policies of recent years. Democrats tend to be a bit more welcoming compared with the Trump Administration, which cut off most refugees entirely, but not really: […]
Editor’s Note: The Market for Bad Journalism
Bad news for the journalism world this week as BuzzFeed announced layoffs at its Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom. Overall, the media company was profitable – in fact, profits are up – but producing high-quality news is expensive. The market was demanding higher returns, so BuzzFeed’s management acted. But who is the market, exactly? The Washington Post covered […]
Editor’s Note: A Sea Change Toward Values
A note from our editor, Elizabeth MacBride: My daughter dropped an 18-year-old profundity the other day. “The pandemic saved us,” she said. “It gave us a new perspective on what was important.” I thought of how a friend asked me recently why I thought some people who are already un-imaginably wealthy, wealthy far beyond any […]
Editor’s Note: The Image of a Woman Leader in Business
Welcome to this week’s newsletter, which is celebrating International Women’s Month. I’ve included some of our best new and old stories about women in business. The question of how to help more women move into positions of leadership is occupying my mind this week, especially because I have just finished the Ad Astra Ventures Bootcamp. […]
Editor’s Note: What the Kremlin wants
I’ve been watching the headlines about Ukraine. I’m horrified at the violence and death, I’m in awe of the courage, and I’m devastated for the mothers in bunkers underneath the city.
Editor’s Note: Is Venture Capital Really a Tool for Broad Economic Development?
Earlier this month, the National Venture Capital Association and the University of North Carolina’s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise released a report on job growth in U.S. venture-backed firms. The headline finding: Employment at VC-backed firms grew faster than employment at non-VC-backed firms between 1990 and 2020. This is like saying the world’s hot-dog eating […]
Editor’s Note: Capital is ‘Bad’, Labor is ‘Good’
A note from our editor, Elizabeth MacBride: At our event last week, Nina Roberts, a stellar freelance writer, asked me why I thought big media doesn’t cover small business very much. The left-wing media, the news outlets we’ve both written for and read, like The Atlantic, or The New York Times or The Washington Post, […]