Joseph Weber was born in Newark, New Jersey, as the eldest of seven in a working-class family. He worked in newspapers and magazines for thirty-five years, ending up as chief of correspondents and Chicago bureau chief for BusinessWeek magazine. With a B.A. in English from Rutgers College and an M.S.J. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, he now works as an associate professor of journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His special interest is in business and economic journalism, which he has taught in the United States and China. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.