More media outlets now cover multiple perspectives on activist investing. Traditional outlets, new financial blogs, and websites specific to activism deliver news and analyses of specific activist situations, individual activist investors, and broader trends.

Earlier, we explored some of the sources specific to activist investing. Then, we highlighted how investors can analyze activist situations. Some of those sources also have blogs and newsletters that allow investors to keep up.

Here, we explain how other media cover activist investing. Some do it more extensively than others. A few columnists spend significant time on activist investing. Most, though, assign activist stories to writers that already cover an industry, so (for example) most outlets covered Allergan on the health care beat. Others assign them to the reporters that cover financial services or hedge funds.

In the hyper-competitive media world today, all these reporters look eagerly for news and analyses. They welcome insights from activists investors with comments about current trends, and (even better) news about developing activist situations. We at least get the Twitter feed, where available, for these writers.

Classic Old Media

The Wall Street Journal commits the most resources to activist investing. To our knowledge, David Benoit is the only reporter in the US, at any outlet, with a full-time activist investing beat. In addition, David’s frequent co-reporter Liz Hoffman covers M&A and corp gov. Editor Joann Lublin writes frequently on corp gov and exec comp. Other columnists and bloggers feature activist angles with some frequency. In the past we’ve critiqued what struck us as slanted or at least casual analysis of corp exec comp that favored executives over investors. It seems they have restored some balance, but not always.

The New York Times has some high-profile writers who spend some of their time on activism. David Gelles and Michael J. de la Merced both cover activist investing situations frequently, but not full-time. Three high-profile columnists, Steven Davidoff Solomon, Gretchen Morgenson, and Andrew Ross Sorkin, deliver insightful analyses a few times each month as part of their overall commentary on financial markets. Solomon is a law professor who writes as the Deal Professor, with in-depth treatment of M&A that we have also critiqued as too casual.

Kind of Old Media

We know of a few other outlets that spend at least some time covering activist investing.

1. ❖At the New York Post, Michelle Celarier has a number of bylines on specific high-profile activist situations.
   

2. ❖Forbes writer Nathan Vardi also covers activists as part of his column and blog on financial markets.
   

3. ❖The Financial Times reports frequently on activist situations, particularly in Europe. They don’t highlight specific reporters, although we see Stephen Foley’s byline frequently.
   

New(er) Media

Bloomberg (new) and BusinessWeek (old-turned-new) pool material. Two reporters, Beth Jinks and Nick Summers, write periodically about activist investing.

At The Deal, Ron Orol also covers activist situations frequently, also as part of his financial markets beat. He has followed the activist scene for many years, and wrote one of the first and best books on activist investing.

The newest media outlet is of course Business Insider, the most popular business news website these days. They spread coverage of activist investing widely, although Julia La Roche spends at least some of her time on the subject.

Let us know if we’ve missed someone.