Zoe Wood
Zoe Wood reports on how everyday shopping and household spending are shaped by shifts in the retail economy and the rising cost of living. As consumer affairs correspondent at the Guardian, she covers the overlap between consumer affairs, retail business and value for money in daily life. Her recent work ranges from practical guides that help families find savings on leisure and entertainment to news coverage of how major retailers respond to economic pressure.
Consumer savings and family spending
A consistent strand in Wood’s reporting is the search for savings in ordinary family life. In pieces such as her guide to “Great British summer savings: grab family deals on days out, films and more,” she focuses on concrete offers and discounts that make leisure activities more affordable, turning broad cost-of-living trends into specific ways households can stretch their budgets. She writes in a service-driven format, centring price, offers and access, and organising information so readers can compare options for days out, cinema trips and other family treats.
This consumer lens runs through her wider beat: she writes about spending not in abstract financial terms, but in the context of what people can buy, how far their money goes, and how changes in prices or promotions play out in daily routines. Her work in this area is grounded in the detail of products, tariffs and deals, keeping the focus on practical implications rather than market theory.
Retail business and the cost of living
Wood brings the same attention to detail to the business side of retail, tracking how trading conditions affect both companies and shoppers. Her articles syndicated by other outlets cover themes such as stores bracing for more pain as the cost of living rises, poor festive trade, and bad weather freezing a major supermarket’s non-food business. These pieces look at sales figures, seasonal performance and operational disruptions, showing how pressures on retailers feed through to prices, product ranges and promotions.
With a background as a retail correspondent before moving into consumer affairs, she has long reported on the performance of high-street chains and supermarkets, giving her coverage depth on how corporate strategies and market competition shape what appears on the shelves. In cost-of-living stories she links macro pressures to specific categories — from food to non-food goods — and to the experience of trading during key periods such as the festive season. The tone is analytical but grounded, combining business metrics with the consumer impact of weaker sales, tighter margins or disrupted supply.
Across this strand of her work, Wood’s reporting shows an interest in the junction between retail operations and household budgets: she follows how external shocks, from economic strain to bad weather, alter what businesses offer and what shoppers can afford. This makes her coverage valuable for stories that sit between corporate performance and everyday spending, especially where there is a clear link to pricing, promotions or customer behaviour.
Books, entertainment and value for money
Beyond groceries and general retail, Wood also applies a consumer perspective to books and entertainment. She has reported on the rise in print book sales, highlighting the renewed appeal of physical books and the commercial comeback of print in the face of digital reading. In this work she treats publishing as another consumer market, examining trends in buying habits and the value readers find in different formats.
Combined with pieces on summer savings for films and days out, this strand shows she is interested in how people spend on culture and leisure as well as essentials. She covers these topics as part of the broader picture of where household money goes, and how pricing, formats and offers influence choices in entertainment just as they do in supermarket aisles.
Beat and format
Wood’s beat sits where consumer affairs, retail and household finances meet. As a correspondent at the Guardian, she reports on how changes in the cost of living, retail performance and promotional strategies affect shoppers and their ability to make their money go further. Her output spans service journalism — practical guides to savings and deals — and business coverage that explains trading conditions and corporate decisions through the lens of consumer impact.
Across formats, the distinguishing feature of her work is this dual focus: she consistently connects the boardroom and the shop floor, translating market developments into their consequences for prices, choice and everyday spending. Stories that illuminate that connection, whether in supermarkets, bookshops or leisure and entertainment, align closely with her established coverage.
4 more finance journalists.
Abba Ihonde
Abba Ihonde is a content writer for Guardian Digital at The Guardian whose beat sits where crypto, fintech and mainstream finance meet. He focuses on how cryptocurrencies, trading platforms and digital tools are reshaping business and finance, especially through regulation, crypto policy and their impact on financial services. His explainer pieces follow the practical realities of traders, importers and growing businesses, tracking everyday crypto use in cross-border trade and the turn to stablecoins. He reports on retail trading platforms and market education, drawing on experience in cryptocurrency futures trading and earlier SEO analysis and editing roles to keep finance coverage clear and structured. Abba also writes on business visibility in the digital economy, policy and tax technology, and takes on broader news and lifestyle assignments, from security incidents to celebrity weddings.
Adam Clark
Adam Clark links fast-moving moves in global markets with clear, stock-focused takeaways for investors, combining breaking news with thematic analysis across equities and commodities. He is a reporter at Barron's, covering breaking news and markets, a role he took on in 2022 after five years with Dow Jones Newswires. His beat is how individual stocks, sectors and major indices react to shifts in the economy, monetary policy and corporate strategy, and what those moves mean for portfolios. He covers real-time moves in leading stocks and indices, high-profile names such as Alphabet and Newmont, and themes like technology volatility and gold market resets. He works in fast-turn news and longer market features, drawing on experience as reporter, editor and Insight columnist across print and digital platforms linked to Dow Jones brands.
Alasdair Ferguson
Alasdair Ferguson is a multimedia journalist at The National whose finance reporting is defined by a strong focus on culture, heritage and history. He uses archives, museums and cultural institutions to tell contemporary stories, linking public money and policy to how Scotland understands its past. He covers finance, culture, heritage, sport, arts and civic campaigns, often showing how decisions and events affect daily life and national identity. His work includes pieces on historic conflicts, museum photo releases, lost music, football history, large-scale supporter travel, arts festivals, television industry shifts and grassroots independence campaigns. He reports through news, features and multimedia, including podcast and video interviews. Across formats, he relies on concrete historical material, scholarly research and institutional sources to foreground why discoveries and campaigns matter now.
Alec Whitaker
Alec Whitaker is a senior court reporter for The Westmorland Gazette and also writes for The Mail. He stands out for reporting criminal cases in a tight, court-led way that links offences to fines, bans, compensation and other legal outcomes. His core beat is magistrates’ and crown court hearings, with regular coverage of theft, drugs, motoring offences, harassment, stalking and robbery. He reports on how the justice system turns behaviour into sentences and financial penalties, from short theft cases to serious drug charges. His pieces give the charge, the hearing, the pleas and the final order in plain terms. He also covers inquests and other court proceedings, and his work has included reporting for The Mail, The Westmorland Gazette and the North West Evening Mail.