By Catherine Douglas Moran, JMC ‘18, M.A. ‘19
Recently, an interviewer asked me, “What does ‘BNA’ stand for?” In fact, when I tell most people that I worked at Bloomberg BNA as a news intern covering climate change, most of them only recognize “Bloomberg.”
Bloomberg BNA, an affiliate of Bloomberg L.P., is a source of legal, tax, regulatory and business information for professionals. With tax and accounting, law and government products, BNA offers subscription news services with analysis and market data.
Writing for BNA required a forward-looking mindset to cover specialized topics focusing on stakeholder impacts. Fortunately, my academic growth in SMPA classes sharpened the research skills, interviewing techniques and writing that I needed most during the internship to tackle a topic I had never covered before — climate change.
I often found myself recalling advice from class with Professor Cheryl W. Thompson. Her guidance on how to unearth records and documents, draft questions for interviews and find people to contact proved invaluable for efficient reporting on tight deadlines.
During the summer, I wrote daily news articles, collaborated with reporters on articles about chemical assessments, finished an in-depth article on a federal climate-related program and completed a group intern project.
A highlight from the summer was learning how to make a podcast. From practicing audio editing in Audacity to chatting with the interviewee to help formulate questions for the interview, I gained valuable skills and experience creating a catchy, informative podcast.
As a part of the internship program, the news and sales interns met the company’s senior leadership at breakfasts and lunches, learned about the company’s products at meetings, took part in the BNA volunteer program and received support from mentors.
Having a mentor was invaluable. He helped me develop professional goals for the internship and served as my go-to for assignments and advice.
My mentor helped me pursue more stories beyond the Arlington, Va. office and always tried to get me out of the office at a normal time despite my protests — I often stayed late to cover breaking news, work with editors or continue research for upcoming assignments.
Now that my internship has ended and I no longer start my mornings on the Blue Line to Crystal City, I’ve learned what BNA truly means.
BNA is not an acronym, but those three letters do represent something special. BNA stands for topical and thorough news stories trusted by committed professionals and written by a supportive and collegial team of dedicated journalists.