You wouldn’t normally find too many stories about college basketball, specifically University of Louisville basketball, in a publication like the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). But when there’s a UofL fan and Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) graduate and who is a top editor of the WSJ, stories or references to UofL men’s basketball find their way into the publication. For Dennis K. Berman, it’s a point of pride that he was the award-winning editor and fan who managed to slide 10 stories about his beloved Cardinals into the pages of America’s most trusted business journal during his 17 years there.
Berman took an interest in journalism from an early age. The 1992 graduate of Atherton High School was writing stories and laying out Atherton’s student newspaper when he was 14 years old, becoming the paper’s editor as a senior. He went on to an Ivy League school, majoring in history at the University of Pennsylvania with eyes on becoming a history professor or journalist. The journalism path won out with his first job at Business Week magazine.
It was later in his career, as Financial Editor of the Wall Street Journal, that Berman made his mark. Berman won a coveted Pulitzer Prize in 2003 as part of the WSJ team that won for Explanatory Reporting. The Pulitzer committee praised the WSJ “for its clear, concise and comprehensive stories that illuminated the roots, significance and impact of corporate scandals in America”. Berman’s column about corporate fraud was a key piece in the WSJ’s entry.
He also won two Loeb Awards for Excellence in Business Journalism in 2008 and 2016 for columns on the global financial crisis and the Dow/Dupont merger, respectively. A Loeb is the highest award for business journalism.
While in charge of the entire business reporting operation at the WSJ, Berman interviewed world business and political leaders, wrote columns and appeared on several panels with other journalists, educators and CEOs. He was a frequent guest on business news network CNBC and even guest hosted an episode of “The Charlie Rose Show”, a popular, syndicated, television interview program. Heady stuff for a kid from Louisville and Jefferson County Public Schools.
“I think it’s natural for people on the coasts to underestimate or overlook people who go to public school in Kentucky,” Berman said. “But the education I got was world class.”
Berman attended Audubon and Goldsmith Elementary and Highland Middle schools before landing at Atherton. He credits an Atherton English teacher, Bill Walsh, with “demanding a lot from us…we read a novel every two weeks. I got a better education in literature from Bill Walsh than I did in college.” It was that kind of rigor, high expectations and the group of “smart and motivated fellow students” that Berman said helped propel his success.
After leaving the WSJ in 2018 Berman “took a risk” and joined Lazard Ltd. as a shareholder and investment banker. He returned to his journalism roots in 2025 when he was named the president and publisher of The Free Press, an online publication with more than one million subscribers focusing on news about culture and politics.
It’s been a career filled with plenty of highs that took root before the internet was a thing. To boost their own chance for success in the modern era of communication, Berman said he would advise current JCPS students to “get off your phone and read. Books are the secret weapon for advancement.” It certainly worked for Great Grad Dennis K. Berman, Atherton Class of ‘92.
“I wouldn’t trade where I’ve come from for anything,” he said.