Meet the OPC Members: Q&A With Jonathan Kapstein

Jonathan Kapstein is the president of the Press Club Brussels
Europe, and a longtime business journalist. He has served as Business Week
(now Bloomberg Businessweek) regional bureau chief in Rio de Janeiro,
Toronto, Milan, Johannesburg and Brussels. Over the course of his career he
has, in his own words, “interviewed indigenous dissidents in Peru, canoed
upriver to Japanese pepper plantations deep in the Amazon, watched not a few US
companies self-destruct through stupidity, observed oil crews and Eskimo
artists in the High Arctic, shared tastes in reading with Pierre Trudeau,
observed clashes between Cold War surrogates in Africa, traveled with other
journalists in chartered planes flying below the arming altitude of SAM
missiles, dined in Ethiopia with my solicitous host personally feeding spiced
raw meat and hepatitis into my mouth” … and much more. In recent years Kapstein
has freelanced as a foreign correspondent while working in government affairs
and communications in the chemical and airline industries. Kapstein has won an
OPC award for Best Reporting from Latin America and has shared two other OPC
citations for his work. He lives in Brussels.

Hometown: Providence, RI.

Education: BA Brown University, MS Columbia School of Journalism, International
Reporting Fellowship, also at Columbia.

Languages: My McGraw-Hill World News colleague in Brussels once described me as
someone who knew 20 languages – but only 200 words in each. Not quite true,
but, hey, close…

First job in journalism: Providence Journal, then Houston Chronicle.

Countries reported from: Vietnam (very briefly), all the ones in South
America, some Central American, Canada, Italy and several neighboring states,
the sub-Saharan African nations, the Benelux countries, the Nordic bloc.

Year you joined the OPC: 1969 but with an interruption. Dropped membership
while in the corporate world.

What drew you to business reporting? Good question. I had become more and more
convinced that economics was driving politics in the post-modern world. At the
same time I was always fascinated by international affairs. Put together it
became international economic-politics, and Lew Young’s remake of Business
Week was an open door.

You’ve gone from business reporter to working in
the business world. How do the two compare? See my bio for the answer to that one.

The Press Club Brussels Europe launched in 2011.
How did it get started? What is its focus? The International Press Association started in Brussels in 1975 and
still exists to facilitate relations with the EU institutions. But with several
hundred foreign journalists here, there was also a need for a more social, more
open venue that could provide press conferences, briefings, and a place to meet
broader professional requirements. Thus, the Press Club Brussels Europe, which
was founded five years ago.

Best journalism advice received: Always travel with a flashlight, a jackknife,
toilet paper, and cash.

Worst experience as a journalist: The time a toilet exploded on a Caravelle aircraft
flown by Cruzeiro do Sul airline. Fortunately I was out of range. Also, many
other third world airline events.

When traveling, you like to … read to relax.

Hardest story: Trying to write a cover story on a Swedish CEO while down with
pneumonia.

Journalism heroes: Many.

Advice for journalists who want to work overseas: Get a sponsor and go to the action, write and
write to build a freelance portfolio, and, above all, be lucky.

Dream job: Done it.

Favorite quote: The coda for my journalism career came one day when a Central Banker
looked at me thoughtfully over an invitational farewell drink in his office.
“You know, Jon,” he said, “you write with even-handed malice.” Not a bad
compliment for a journalist, I think.

Place you’re most eager to visit: Egypt, India….

Country you most want to return to: All.

Twitter handle: None. I am experimenting with staying away from social media.

Want
to add to the OPC’s collection of Q&As with members? Please contact
patricia@opcofamerica.org.