A Conversation with Hartford Business Journal Editor Greg Bordonaro ’08

Greg Bordonaro '08 was named editor of the Hartford Business Journal in June 2013.
Greg Bor­donaro ’08 was named edi­tor of the Hart­ford Busi­ness Jour­nal in June 2013. He start­ed his career at the Hart­ford Busi­ness Jour­nal 5 years ago as a reporter. (Pho­to via hartfordbusiness.com)

Greg Bor­donaro land­ed the top edi­to­r­i­al job at the Hart­ford Busi­ness Jour­nal in June 2013. Bor­donaro is a grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut who earned his degree in Jour­nal­ism and His­to­ry in 2008.

In his role as edi­tor, he over­sees the Hart­ford Busi­ness Jour­nal’s award-win­ning week­ly busi­ness-to-busi­ness news­pa­per, web­site and spe­cial sections.

Found­ed in 1992, the Hart­ford Busi­ness Jour­nal serves 25,000+ read­ers in 61 towns in the Greater Hart­ford region. Its web­site — HartfordBusiness.com — is a reg­u­lar­ly updat­ed online hub of news and infor­ma­tion, pro­vid­ing dai­ly email alerts and a dig­i­tal archive of articles.

Bor­donaro, a West Hart­ford res­i­dent, recalled his expe­ri­ence as a UConn Jour­nal­ism major in an email interview.

Why did you choose to major in journalism?
In high school I want­ed to be a sports writer, so I was set ear­ly on about major­ing in jour­nal­ism. While at UConn, how­ev­er, I gained inter­est in writ­ing about oth­er sub­ject areas. It wasn’t until after col­lege that I devel­oped a pas­sion for busi­ness news.

How did your UConn edu­ca­tion and con­nec­tions help you?
The UConn jour­nal­ism pro­gram was very impor­tant to my growth as a jour­nal­ist. I not only learned the basics of the trade, but also advanced report­ing tech­niques that I use dai­ly at my job. UConn also helped me land a great intern­ship, which helped me gain impor­tant indus­try expe­ri­ence and contacts.

Did you have a favorite class?
[Prof.] Mar­cel Dufresne’s advanced report­ing tech­niques class was the most inter­est­ing and infor­ma­tive class I took through­out my four years at UConn.

Is there any­thing you wish you did while still at UConn? 
I wish I wrote more for The Dai­ly Cam­pus. I cov­ered the golf beat one year, but nev­er real­ly spent too much time writ­ing for the paper.

What’s your advice for cur­rent jour­nal­ism majors at UConn?
My best advice is to do as many intern­ships as pos­si­ble. Real work expe­ri­ence is what sells to employ­ers these days. The job mar­ket is com­pet­i­tive and edi­tors aren’t inter­est­ed in hir­ing peo­ple with­out any real world expe­ri­ence. Intern­ships are also a great way to make indus­try con­tacts that may land you future job opportunities.

Fol­low Greg Bor­donaro on Twit­ter: @GregBordonaro