Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Jill Dutt gave journalism students advice on how to succeed in the profession Tuesday, as part of professor Lou Ureneck’s Introduction to Business and Economic Reporting class.

About 20 students attended the lecture, which focused on the ethics and practices of financial journalism.

Lately, “we’ve had more crime in the Business section than in the Metro section,” Dutt said.

Dutt praised Alec Klein’s expos on AOL’s unconventional tactics for reporting its advertising revenue, published in the Post in summer of 2002.

She said the Gerald Loeb Award-winning article succeeded because of its “real examples,” “on the record quotes” and “great writing.”

“Getting it right gives you a lot of power to tell a story,” she said. “You can get into lots of elaborate dances about how you’re going to source the information.”

She discouraged students from using the increasingly popular “sources said” attribution, even though “it might feel sexier to say.”

College of Communication graduate student Ken St. Onge said, “It was nice to hear her talk kind of openly and candidly,”

First-year COM graduate student Raquel Pichardo said the AOL story was “a good insider’s view of what it takes to crack open a story.”

“For a student, that’s a good thing to know,” she said.

Students from outside Ureneck’s class attended as well.

“She’s hardcore,” said Miho Nagano, a first-year COM graduate student. “She seems like she really loves her job. She has a passion to dig for stories.”

Before introducing Dutt, Ureneck applauded her for being “a leader and innovator in her newsroom.”