What business news should mean

When I was a boy growing up in Kansas, I had to ride the bus to school.

It took forever.

To keep me in line during the hour-long trip, my dad loaded me up with things to read — and to face occasional pop quizzes on. As I circumnavigated every residential street in town, I pored over the old man’s copies of Fortune, Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal.

At first, this seemed like some sort of cruel punishment — or joke.

After all, my mom’s an English teacher. She could have sent a volume of Mark Twain with my lunch box. Instead, I got commodity reports. My classmates weren’t especially interested in carried interest or supply-side economics.

And yet I was riveted. I loved and learned from every word. Sure, I learned how to read a balance sheet. But there was much more than dry numbers: Business news was about innovative people who did interesting things, who solved seemingly intractable problems and created familiar products. It was about energetic people pursuing their passions.

That’s what business news means to me.

And that’s what I think you should expect from your local business journal. That’s what I hope to bring to you each month. If you have an idea for a business story, I hope you’ll do me the favor of letting me know. I look forward to meeting you.

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Andy Obermueller is the assistant managing editor of the Business Journal of North Idaho. He can be reached at aobermueller@cdapress.com.