The tenet that Six Past Twelve was built upon, the very essence of its journalistic credentials, distilled into four simple words.
It was a phrase I had hastily scribbled down on a hot pink Post-it one morning amidst the swirl of cases, a note pinned to my wall for so long the blue-tack holding it left a dark grease spot against the paint. It was a promise to myself, to be bold in seeking the truth. It was a promise to my readers that business news didn’t have to be inscrutable, and an allusion to the core economic principle my writing was founded on: the most rational actor was the most informed actor. It became the spirit that defined my writing and my purpose. A motto proudly posted on the top of my blog.
Six Past Twelve in the evening. The perfect time to write.
My name is Mike. I’ll be a student at New York University studying Business and Economics Reporting for my master’s degree. My undergraduate degree was in Business Studies at the University of Edinburgh. And this blog—my blog—was created with the goal of making the complex simple. Of making what was considered erudite and impenetrable accessible to all.
A lot of business writing exists nowadays, but most of it is written for people that already know a thing or two about business. This isn’t fair because everyday people deserve to know what goes on in business, how it works and how it affects them at every level. And if business writing always seems vague, inapproachable and jargon heavy, rather than trying to understand it people fear it instead. The “gap in the market” is to make business writing simple, relatable, and maybe even fun. The point is to make business understandable by all.
The more people know, after all, the better their decisions will be. Good for business. Good for humanity. Good—for me!
I intend to take this blog with me to school, where it will remain my personal blog, allowing me to expand my reporting in ways not otherwise possible. I’m planning to use it to document my writing and my progress, comment on business and journalism, and use it as a testing ground for new types of journalism and experiments. Readers are writers, after all, and increasingly writers are readers.
And knowledge is the great equalizer.
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