Those Golden Jeans

For this particular ECONnections program, we are going to speak today with Mr. Joe Tigue. Mr. Tigue is the Managing Editor of a publication called Outlook and it's published by Standard & Poors Company which is one of the McGraw-Hill Companies who bring you ECONnections. in this interview portion, let's see if we can take some of the mystery out of this whole thing that often surrounds economics and the workplace.

RUCKER:

I am really interested in this position you have as managing editor of a publication. What kind of work do you do?

TIGUE:

I should explain something about the Outlook that is published by Standard & Poors-it's an investment advisory newsletter. It is twelve pages and it comes out every week. The Outlook has been giving advice to investors via the Outlook for more than 70 years. We tell our subscribers which stocks we like and why and what we expect the stock market and economy to do in the months ahead. My job is to decide which articles will be published each week. I do the layout of the publication and I assign the write-ups to the various securities analysts. When the analysts turn in their assignments, I do the editing and make sure the article is easy to read and the grammar is correct. We send everything to our production department where the newsletter is done on computer. We used to send everything out, but now with desktop publishing, it's a lot easier to do it in the office.

RUCKER:

You are actually located in what we call "lower downtown Manhattan", right in the financial district-kind of the heartbeat of all things financial and stock market-ish.

TIGUE:

That's very true-we are not too far from the New York Stock Exchange, or the American Stock Exchange. It's pretty exciting down here.

RUCKER:

I can imagine that it is. Would you say that you provide a good or a service?

TIGUE:

Actually, it's a good, since it's a tangible, but it's a good that provides a service. We tell our readers which investments we believe are the best.

RUCKER:

So it's a good and a service. I think it's important to understand the differences here, obviously, but it's something in an occupational sense of your position as a managing editor, actually dealing in both a good and a service. You have also talked about some of the equipment you referred to-desktop publishing. Are there any other equipment or capital resources that you use in your work?

TIGUE:

Of course, desktop publishing is essentially a computer, a program that goes into the computer. I use the telephone all the time-I'm in contact with various analysts. I use a calculator because I have to calculate the price earnings ratio of a stock, the yield of a stock, or how much the stock has gone up or down. We use e-mail constantly and the usual things like paper, pens and pencils.

RUCKER:

Those are some of the capital resources and you talked about capital goods as well in your position. Really, there is a great deal in the capital sense that goes into your daily enterprise.

TIGUE:

Yes, definitely.

RUCKER:

In your excellent description of the flow of putting out a weekly newsletter, you talked about this, but maybe you could zero in a little bit on some of the essential skills that are really important to your work.

TIGUE:

You have to have knowledge of the stock market and the economy as well as being familiar with security analysis. Also very important is an ability to write and edit. Interpersonal skills are very important-I'm always talking with analysts, management and companies. All of these skills are essential to the job.

RUCKER:

Proofreading?

TIGUE:

Oh, yes.

RUCKER:

Good grammar is probably necessary, too.

TIGUE:

You have to know how to compose a straight-forward sentence and be able to have a pretty good vocabulary, knowing English well, and also knowing the economy-what makes everything tick.

RUCKER:

We seem to be making more and more copies of things as time goes on. I suspect that doesn't stop even with the production of a newsletter. You have done a wonderful job of describing the effort that goes into managing and producing a weekly newsletter. We appreciate that very much. I think many people that are in school are thinking about their own careers and jobs as they look ahead. I wonder what suggestions you might have for young people as they continue their education?

TIGUE:

Students should try to balance their studies with outside activities such as clubs and sports. To be successful in the business world, you must be well rounded and be able to get along with many different personality types. I also advise that young people try to read at least the front page of a good newspaper every day as well as some business news. These days, you need to know about the stock market and investing in stocks and bonds because most companies' retirement savings plans today require that you take an active part in managing your investments. I recommend getting on a web site such as moneycentral.com and vanguard.com. They have a lot of good, basic material on these web sites.

RUCKER:

I think those are excellent suggestions that students can easily follow through on with their skills that are ever increasing in the use of the internet and other resources that you suggested to us this morning. In this particular interview portion of our lesson, our guest has been Mr. Joe Tigue, the Managing Editor of a weekly publication called Outlook. It is produced by Standard & Poors Company, a McGraw-Hill Company, who is helping us produce ECONnections. Mr. Tigue is located in New York City.