Press and media

Pearl Paradise in the press

Reporters covering pearls come to us for the part of the story that happens before the jewelry case: the farms, the harvests, the auctions, and the prices. Coverage runs from 2003 to today.

  • The New York Times
  • The Wall Street Journal
  • Financial Times
  • Newsweek
  • Los Angeles Times
  • USA Today
  • Inc. Magazine
  • GIA Gems and Gemology
  • JCK
  • Freakonomics Radio

Featured coverage

Rapaport Magazine

June 2026  /  Industry interview

Sea Changes in the World of Pearls

Read at Rapaport
Freakonomics Radio

May 2025  /  Podcast episode

The Economics of Everyday Things: Pearls

Listen at Freakonomics
The New York Times

December 2024  /  Market feature

Pearls Have Acquired a New Luster Among Young Designers

Read at The New York Times

2005 to 2016

Landmark coverage

The Wall Street Journal

Pearl Seller Finds Trust Is Essential to Success

July 2005. The first national business profile of the company.

 The New York Times

Spanning the Blue Globe, for Little White Ones

November 2007. Reporting on the global akoya trade.

 GIA Gems and Gemology

Continuity and Change in Chinese Freshwater Pearl Culture

Summer 2007. Peer-reviewed research, co-authored.

 Los Angeles Times

Singular Sensation

July 2010. The Los Angeles operation, at home.

 Financial Times

Rarest of Pearls Face a Less Than Golden Future

September 2015. Golden South Sea supply and rarity.

 JCK

Market Visit, Part III: Shopping at the Pearl Paradise Offices

August 2016. A trade editor walks the inventory.

2023 to 2026

Recent coverage

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2003 to 2020

Press archive

2017 to 2020
2011 to 2015
2008 to 2010
2003 to 2007

For journalists

Working on a pearl story

Jeremy Shepherd buys akoya pearls in Kobe every year, has visited freshwater farms in China dozens of times, and has been buying Tahitian pearls in French Polynesia for roughly twenty-five years. He is President of The Pearl Association of America and the author of Pearls As One, the pearl specialist certification course used by professionals in several languages.

We can provide interviews, harvest and farm photography, price context, and technical review of pearl copy before it runs.

  • Japanese akoya production, the hama-age auctions, and shell mortality
  • Tahitian pearl farming, grading, and the French Polynesian export system
  • Bead nucleation in Chinese freshwater mussels
  • Golden and white South Sea farming across Australia, the Philippines, and Indonesia
  • Pearl pricing, supply, and the effect of Chinese demand
  • Treatment disclosure and the limits of pearl grading terminology
  • Global sourcing and cross-cultural buying in Japan, China and French Polynesia
  • Building and scaling a direct-to-consumer luxury ecommerce business since the 1990s
  • Selling high-value jewelry online: trust, photography, video, virtual appointments and livestream commerce
  • Livestream selling and direct-to-consumer jewelry retail