I have been fascinated by economics and the running of businesses since studying the subjects at school - particularly the relationship between the international/national economy (macroeconomics) and the individual circumstances of people and firms (microeconomics). If I had not chosen to study journalism at university, then I can say with confidence that economics would have been my subject of choice.
My conversations with family and friends who are involved in small businesses helped me to realise exactly how much of a hammer-blow the unavoidable national lockdown is proving to be for these smaller firms and sole traders. The pre-existing decline of the High Street was being relentlessly exacerbated and accelerated by the lockdown situation. Through further research and by examining media reports, it also became clear to me that there was an increasing divide in the business world between 'haves' and 'have-nots' in the wake of the pandemic.
Media reports of plummeting footfall on High Streets and former retail juggernauts including Debenhams and Arcadia Group encountering serious financial difficulties was another huge example of the decline which was taking place before the eyes of consumers.
I decided to use the opportunity of my MMP to highlight the struggle many businesses are facing, and also the aforementioned divide in the business world, which is being compounded by the pandemic. I decided to speak to a broad range of interviewees to gauge different perspectives - this included a representative of 140,000 firms, an economist, a co-founder of a large retail firm, and a small business owner.
Their insight into the situation was fascinating, and I believe that the article provides readers with a realistic picture of the current situation for English businesses, and how the situation could be expected to develop.
I chose the New York Times International Edition as my target publication for this article. It is a newspaper which I admire for its journalistic integrity, variation of articles and broad range of perspectives. I aspire to write for the NYT, and the target audience of ABC1 are likely to be interested in financial and economic matters, so it seemed the perfect choice for an article of this nature.