“It really lit a spark. It taught me a lot about the written word and the power that it has to influence people.”

This is how Simone Foxman ’07 remembers her first experience in journalism—as co-editor-in-chief of Taft’s student newspaper, The Papyrus. Little did she know that working on the Pap would be the first step in a journey that would ultimately lead her to the headquarters of one of the world’s most prominent media companies, Bloomberg.

“Now I’m an investing reporter, and my beat is pretty specific to the finance industry. Basically, my job is to follow the money,” explains Foxman. “These are the people calling the shots, who have millions or billions of dollars to invest. I follow what they’re investing in and why, to shed light on a part of the world that’s very secretive.”

Foxman also discovered her interest in business and finance while at Taft. “I actually took my first economics class at Taft,” she remembers. “I loved understanding why people and businesses and governments act the way they do. It taught me that money is really the driving force behind a lot of the most important geopolitical developments in the world.”

This initial fascination stayed with Foxman as she studied at Columbia University, double majoring in economics and Middle Eastern studies. While she learned about the markets in the classroom, she also honed her journalistic skills through a variety of media internships in New York. “I worked at a lot of news outlets, both national and local, and in those experiences, I really recognized that business reporting was something very important to me,” she says.

From there, she followed her passion to the then-fledgling Business Insider, ultimately joining the Bloomberg team a little over three years ago. “More and more, I wanted to do investigative journalism,” she says. “Oftentimes, the people that I talk to are publicity shy, and it can be hard work finding out what they’re doing and why.”

But it is precisely this challenge that excites Foxman about the news business. “I really like uncovering stories that the public deserves to hear,” she says. “There’s a thrill to breaking news. As a journalist, I learn new things every day, and as I grow in my career, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to tell bigger, better, and more impactful stories.”

And she is committed to keeping her reporting accurate. “I see that the way that everyday people view the media has changed substantially in the last few years,” she acknowledges. “It’s important that as a news organization there are strict standards of accuracy, and these last few years have shined a bright light on how important those practices are. We are very careful to make sure we have our facts straight.”

This changing media landscape has also meant that Foxman must stay versatile in how she communicates to her audience. Not only does she write regularly for Bloomberg’s terminal and website, she frequently appears on radio, podcasts, and Bloomberg’s finance-focused television programs.

“Any journalist in this day and age has to be willing to embrace multiple media. I like being part of the conversation,” she says, “and this role of being a journalist, especially in the finance world, really allows you to be part of conversations that are happening at the highest level. Whether they’re about the future of companies or whether they’re talking about how wealth is influencing policy, those are very interesting discussions to have.”

—Christopher Browner ’12