Meet Matthew Brodsky, Senior Editor/Web Editor at Risk & Insurance
Tell us about your dream assignment.
My insurance-related dream assignment, if there is such a thing, is a bit morbid. When the Big One happens in California, and half the state falls into the ocean, I’d like to cover it like I had the chance to cover Katrina. Or the big quake in the Pacific Northwest. Cool stuff … in a sick insurance kind of way.
A noninsurance-related journalistic dream assignment … picking grapes i
n Alsace, one of the few areas in France, perhaps the world, where most of the grapes for wine are hand-picked off the vines. I was there years ago for harvest festival and have always wanted to go back, this time rolling up my sleeves and helping out.
A noninsurance, non-journalistic dream assignment: writing fiction on the beach. Caribbean preferably.
What is your PR pet peeve?
A big one: PR people who don’t even make the appearance of effort in getting to know what my pub is about. They don’t even try to hide that they are clueless and are contacting me simply in a shotgun attempt to get coverage anywhere.
Another: PR people who make big promises and then disappear, never to be heard from again. Or if you hear from them again, they forget their old big promises as they make new big promises.
Top trend in the industry you’re currently covering or are interested in.
Two big ones. For employers, healthcare reform and the uncertainties of the current regulatory environment have everyone on edge. It will be amazing to see how this plays out in the next few years and what will remain of healthcare reform by 2014.
The other huge issue for enterprises today is the BP-style disaster. Something that no amount of insurance will protect you against, that destroys your brand, your market capitalization, perhaps your entire business, virtually overnight.
Tell us a little about yourself.
I’ve had the pleasure of covering the insurance and risk industry for more than five years, and I say that without the least bit of sarcasm. I have been a professional writer and editor for more than a decade. Before that, I tried my hand at being a historian and at writing fiction on the beach. Neither paid well at the time.
To learn more about Risk & Insurance, visit Risk & Insurance.
Be sure to check back next time for the inside scoop on Grant Marek, editor of Thrillist SF.
Matthew: First off, I hope we never have to witness your dream assignment in California! Second of all, great thoughts all the way around. Third, when’s your next fiction book coming out? And fourth, love the photo with you and your kid! Thanks so much for participating in our blog. Cheers, David