Steve Jordon, a 1968 University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications alumnus, will be honored March 18 as the Omaha Press Club’s next Face on the Barroom Floor. Jordon has worked as an Omaha World-Herald reporter for 50 years and covers Warren Buffett for the newspaper.
The World-Herald is co-sponsoring the evening to salute Jordon’s half-century of service to the newspaper.
“Steve represents journalism at its best,” said Mike Reilly, a longtime World-Herald editor and a vice president of BH Media Group. “He’s a happy warrior, dedicated to truth, fairness and the interests of readers. We are delighted to team up with the Press Club in honor of Steve.”
Jordon came to Bellevue, Nebraska, in 1962 with an Air Force family and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism at University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He was a student intern at the World-Herald when he wrote his first byline story on June 7, 1967, about Nebraska's first Job Corps graduates.
Since joining the World-Herald full time in 1968, Jordon has covered police, county government, the courts, youth, education and, for the past 35 or so years – business and the economy. He was business editor of the World-Herald for a decade and helped build it into a separate section of the newspaper, now titled "Money."
Some of the stories Jordon has covered during his illustrious career include:
- the 1970 suitcase bombing that killed Omaha Police Officer Larry Minard;
- an expose on Nebraska businesses that used undocumented laborers for projects such as the CenturyLink Center;
- the 2002 Norfolk bank robbery;
- the Von Maur shootings in 2007; and
- the tornado at the Little Sioux Boy Scout camp in 2008.
In 2008, Jordon began a weekly column, called "Warren Watch," about Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway, the Omaha company that has become one of the nation's largest corporations. In 2013, Jordon wrote a World-Herald book about Buffett titled, “The Oracle and Omaha: How Warren Buffett and His Home Town Shaped Each Other.”
His stories have been recognized by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the Associated Press and the American Newspaper Publishers Association.
Jordon has served as president of the Omaha Press Club and was a founding trustee of the Omaha Press Club Foundation. He has served as an adviser for Junior Achievement and to UNO's student newspaper, The Gateway. He taught reporting and newswriting at Creighton University for about 20 years and is a regular speaker at UNO's “Genius of Buffett” course for executive MBA students.
