A look at PA Media’s Business News Desk

We catch up with Reporter Alex Daniel to get insight into one of PA Media’s busiest news team – the business desk.

With the cost-of-living crisis dominating the news landscape these past few years, and past recessions in history – finance news is a content area always demanding significant coverage from PA Business Desk.

Alex talks more about what he sees as the big financial stories that will dominate 2025, what PA’s finance news coverage entails, and what an average day looks like for Alex – plus much more.

The economy is of course playing a big part in the political landscape – what do you see as the big financial stories that will dominate 2025?

The impacts of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first Budget in October will remain in sharp focus this year as the implications for businesses – and the economy at large – become clearer.

We’ve already seen household name businesses announcing job cuts this year after Ms Reeves announced that employers’ national insurance contributions would be hiked from April.

Of course, companies tend not to point out that those tax increases are designed to pay for improvements to public services like the NHS. In the long run, that helps everyone, including the private sector.

But with inflation on the rise again, and more uncertainty coming from Donald Trump’s threat of trade tariffs for goods sold to the US, it’s not hard to see why firms are wary of rising costs.

And how do you see the financial news landscape unfold in the next few years, what could be the big stories when the next general election comes?

By the time we reach the next election we’ll have a better view of whether Labour is succeeding in growing the economy, which it has made a top priority.

The Government has also promised to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of this Parliament, a huge increase on current levels. Even the most optimistic observers will admit that this is ambitious.

So far, growth has been stagnant, and interest rates are still only in the early stages of coming down, which is holding back the housing market.

Of course, it’s early days – and as ever, there is a Trump-sized hole in everybody’s predictions.

But inevitably, most elections are won and lost on the economy, and whether people feel like they have more money in their pockets. These are the key yardsticks that Labour will be judged on.

What does an average day look like for you on the business desk?

The busiest time of the day is 7am. That’s when the Government releases economic data, and when listed companies make statements to the stock market.

Every day we have a team on the early morning shift trawling through both and getting it out to the PA’s customers – ideally before the competition.

Those stories could be anything from a steep rise in inflation or mass job cuts to fast-growing water bills.

As the day moves on, we’ll be out and about covering key news events like Bank of England interest rates announcements, or interviewing company bosses about what’s coming next for their customers.

And we’re always on hand to respond to the latest stock market crash, surprise resignation or corruption scandal.

Can you give us an overview of PA’s business desk coverage, what does it entail?

At the centre of our coverage is the economy. This includes wage growth, house prices, energy bills and interest rates.

Then there are companies. We report on whether the biggest firms in the country are making a profit or a loss, cutting jobs or hiring, and sometimes, whether they’re telling the truth or not.

That includes the biggest banks, supermarkets, energy giants, manufacturers and many more – and you’d be hard-pressed to find a week where we haven’t interviewed at least a few top chief executives.

Between all of that you have news coming from politicians. We work closely with the PA’s parliamentary team on Government announcements around things like net zero, tax increases and other policy changes.

What type of finance news content do you think proves popular with audiences?

Often, the stories that capture the imagination are the ones which have an impact on people’s daily lives.

Sometimes, those are easy to pick out. While nobody likes reading about rising bills or mass job losses, they’re hard to ignore.

But often these stories are not immediately obvious.

Finance can be difficult to understand even for journalists who write about it every day, let alone people with better things to be getting on with.

Translating company balance sheets or economic data into something that you’d read on a news website is one of the most difficult, but important, part of business journalism.

And of course, sometimes there is a big gap between what companies and politicians say and what it actually means for normal people.

It’s our job to bridge that gap, and the success of a story often depends on how well we’ve done that.

Do you have any hopes and dreams for 2025?

The last few years have been littered with bad news for the UK economy, which usually means normal people have less money in their pockets. We can probably all agree it’d be nice to see things turning around.

Meanwhile, the media industry has seen another year of job losses and falling budgets.
The PA has avoided the worst of this in recent times, but for the sake of colleagues across the sector telling stories truthfully and accurately, I’d like to see this change.

To learn more about PA Media’s finance news content, click here.