Alison Durkee
Alison Durkee covers how law, regulation and politics bear on major companies and industries, focusing on the business risks that come with trials, investigations and fast-moving policy fights. At Forbes she writes news-driven explainers that translate complex legal and regulatory developments into clear takeaways for readers who need to understand how these stories affect corporate strategy, reputation and markets. Her work stands out for its emphasis on timelines, concrete filings and official actions rather than abstract commentary.
Legal and regulatory pressure on major companies
Durkee’s coverage zeroes in on companies at the center of scrutiny, with a particular focus on technology and other high-growth sectors. In her reporting on OpenAI’s difficult stretch — from courtroom battles to government investigations and product reversals — she treats each new development as part of a broader pattern of legal and regulatory pressure on a business model. She breaks down lawsuits, inquiries and regulatory moves into their component parts: who is bringing the action, what laws or rules are at issue, what remedies are being sought, and how the company is adjusting its products or public messaging in response. That structure allows her to show not only that a company is under fire, but exactly where the most acute business risks lie — whether in intellectual property, safety compliance, consumer protection or corporate governance. She often highlights how shifts in policy or enforcement can reshape product roadmaps, partnerships and investor expectations, making her stories useful for anyone tracking the operating environment around artificial intelligence, social platforms and other data-heavy businesses.
Trials, investigations and political risk
A recurring thread in Durkee’s work is the financial and reputational impact of high-profile trials and investigations. She follows legal proceedings and official probes that sit at the intersection of business and politics, treating court calendars and investigative milestones as key drivers of risk. Her stories map out the life cycle of a case — from initial complaint or announcement of an inquiry, through key rulings or hearings, to possible settlement or enforcement action — and connect each stage to concrete consequences for the organizations involved. She drills into charges, counts and legal theories in plain language, explaining what a verdict or regulatory finding would mean for a company’s operations, leadership or future deals. Because she tracks both litigation and political response, her coverage frequently shows how legal outcomes can feed back into legislative proposals, further scrutiny from regulators or new waves of public pressure, deepening the sense of political risk around contested business practices.
Explainers that foreground context and stakes
Durkee’s pieces are structured as tight, fast-moving explainers rather than essays or personal columns. She typically opens with a concise lede that captures the core development in a case or controversy and why it matters now, then moves into clearly signposted sections that distill key facts, background and what to watch next. Timelines and chronological narratives are central to her approach: she walks readers through how a situation escalated, which agencies or courts got involved when, and how companies’ statements and actions have evolved along the way. She is sparing with adjectives and foregrounds specific actions — filings, subpoenas, product pauses, executive comments — as the building blocks of her analysis. That emphasis on sequence and documentation makes it easier to see how an ostensibly sudden crisis often reflects long-running tensions with regulators, lawmakers or competitors. Even when she is covering breaking developments, her format makes room for context about earlier investigations, related cases and parallel disputes in the same sector, giving her stories a depth that goes beyond a single headline.
Business impact of emerging technologies
Across her business coverage, emerging technologies are a consistent point of focus, especially where they raise novel legal, ethical and regulatory questions. In writing about generative artificial intelligence, Durkee pairs reporting on product launches and setbacks with close attention to copyright claims, safety concerns, transparency obligations and the positions of watchdogs and policymakers. She situates individual companies within a wider competitive landscape, noting when regulatory scrutiny of one firm signals risks for rivals pursuing similar strategies. Rather than treating technology as an isolated beat, she frames it as an industry-wide stress test for existing legal frameworks and corporate risk management. That framing is evident in how she connects technical developments to issues like content liability, data governance and the potential for new rules that could redefine what is commercially viable in AI and adjacent fields. Her work helps clarify not just what new tools do, but what they could cost businesses if regulators, courts or political actors decide the current balance of power needs to shift.
4 more business journalists.
Alex Bronzini-Vender
Alex Bronzini-Vender is a business reporter who focuses on how economic forces and corporate decisions shape specific communities and industries. He covers business for the Washington Monthly, writing reported pieces at the intersection of commerce and public life. His work reflects the magazine’s emphasis on linking markets and money to power, policy, and everyday experience. He treats business not as balance sheets and deals but as choices that affect local realities. In “Fear and Loathing in Palo Alto,” he uses a city tied to the tech sector to examine how a powerful industry influences a community. He grounds his business beat in on-the-ground consequences rather than treating corporate and financial developments in isolation.
Alex Smith
Alex Smith focuses on the business impact of enterprise technology, with a distinctive emphasis on AI literacy and skills rather than technical specifications. They write for Technology Record, covering how artificial intelligence and cloud platforms from major providers are turned into concrete programmes for organisations and governments. Their beat sits at the junction of business strategy, national digital policy and large-scale technology partnerships. They report on national AI literacy programmes and public–private partnerships, showing how policy choices, vendor capabilities and skills gaps intersect. On the business beat, they treat AI and cloud as tools for competitiveness, workforce readiness and participation in a data-driven economy. Their concise, announcement-led reporting highlights who is partnering with whom, what programme is being launched, which technologies underpin it and how it changes capability on the ground for executive readers.
Alyson Shontell
Alyson Shontell covers business through the lens of leadership, using in-depth conversations with powerful executives and founders to show how their decisions shape companies, markets, and public life. She is editor in chief at Fortune, overseeing coverage across the masthead while continuing to write selected high-impact pieces. Her core work is long, reported interviews and profiles of CEOs of large companies, dominant tech firms, and fast-growing startups. She focuses on how leaders think, manage risk, make unconventional calls, and handle crises, culture, and the future of work. Her subjects include corporate chiefs, startup founders, and political figures treated as executives. She probes operating detail, governance, internal culture, and trade-offs around growth, disruption, and workplace models, using concrete examples and direct, accessible prose that foregrounds the subject’s voice while pressing for specifics.
Andrew Seidman
Andrew Seidman stands out for covering the three-way intersection of business, government, and public opinion, treating public sentiment as a core business variable rather than background color. He reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer on how business decisions and economic policy collide with politics and public opinion, with a focus on making complex regulatory and market issues understandable to general readers. His beat includes regulation, taxation, corporate strategy, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. He explains technical policy debates in plain language, walking through mechanics, compliance costs, and who stands to win or lose. His work is data-driven, using survey results, economic indicators, and budget figures alongside case studies and on-the-ground interviews. He writes in a restrained, explanatory voice, draws on varied expert and community sources, and emphasizes accountability and concrete stakes.