Angus Loten, BA 05, was honoured with a National Press Foundation Award | Photo credit: Caitlin Huston
“Our story looked at how the shutdown affected small businesses,” says Loten, who covers start-ups and entrepreneurship nationally for WSJ. Only stories about the shutdown were considered for the award.
“A lot of small businesses depend on government loans, and the shutdown put a halt to the cash flow,” says Loten, who has been with the journal nearly four years.
Loten, a former Montreal Gazette and Toronto Star reporter, was drawn to New York and techy news after an internship with Time magazine in 2001.
“It was great, I wanted to come back to New York,” says Loten, who worked in Canada for several months in 2010 as a Dow Jones’ Parliament Hill reporter.
Loten reflects fondly on his time at Concordia’s Department of Journalism, particularly classes he had with Professor Mike Gasher.
“In the field I learned the work, in the classroom I learned why I was doing it,” says Loten. “I learned to ask myself more questions.”
“It’s nice to know that he’s around if I need him,” says Loten, who remains in touch with Gasher and still bounces ideas off of his former professor.
Gasher reciprocates the sentiment: “It’s great to see students succeed, not only finding jobs, but finding jobs at the highest level.”
Read Loten’s award-winning “Small Firms Grapple with Roadblocks” here.