Erik Best Profile-Jenna Moller

American Journalist Moves to Prague to Start Own Business
By Jenna Moller

When Erik Best moved to Prague in 1991, he had a goal: to provide news on the Czech Republic’s political and business activities in English. By February of 1992, he had established the Fleet Sheet, a news bulletin that is still a leading news source in the Czech Republic twenty years later.

Although Best’s current work is in Europe, he did not originate here. Born in Montana in 1962, his first journalism job was as a sports writer for the Missoulian at the young age of sixteen. Later on, he studied Eastern European Studies at Georgetown University of Foreign Service and graduated in 1985 before going on to earn his Masters degree in Russian language from Middlebury College. Studying in Moscow in 1983 and 1984 helped him to do this. Two years after graduating from Georgetown, Best earned his Masters of Business Administration at the University of North Carolina. He worked briefly in banking and management consulting in Raleigh, North Carolina before deciding to move to Prague.

Fleet Sheet was created from the foundation of Best’s skills in journalism, diplomacy, politics, business, and foreign language. These skills also allowed Best to create Final Word, “a short daily commentary on the major business and political issues affecting the Czech Republic,” according to fsfinalword.com. Final Word is a Monday to Thursday publication that was founded in 2001. On Fridays, Best and his team publish the Friday edition of Final Word. This version is a weekly analysis of the main political and business events in the Czech Republic. It allows Best and his employees a chance to tie up all the events of the previous week. Customers can get Final Word for free with a subscription to Fleet Sheet.

“We separate the wheat from the chaff,” says Best, referring the quality of his company.

To keep the quality of his company high, Best knows that he must keep up on his foreign languages to be able to communicate with Fleet Sheet’s broad array of customers. To do this, he reads detective novels in foreign languages. However, he really loves the works of Vladimir Nabokov, Graham Greene, and John Le Carre.

Best not only stays in touch with his customers through his foreign language skills, but also by making frequent media appearances through Czech radio commentary, such as Radio.cz and Parlametni Listy.cz, and television stations

Not every businessman is comfortable picking up everything he has and moving to a new country. But for Erik Best, he knew he had to do what was best for his company, seeing Prague as a place that had the most opportunity for Fleet Sheet. What can he say? Best knows best.