Allen Wastler's Best And Worst Investments

Sometimes the best investment decisions have nothing to do with buying shares of Apple AAPL, Ford F, or any other major corporation.

For Allen Wastler, the managing editor of CNBC.com, his best is a simple one.

“Best decision I ever made was jumping to the Internet,” Wastler told Benzinga during a recent interview.

Part 1: Allen Wastler, Managing Editor of CNBC - At the Forefront of the News

Part 2: Allen Wastler, Managing Editor of CNBC - At the Forefront of the News - Part II

“It opened doors for me both professionally but also journalistically because Internet journalism allows you to do so much more than the printed word,” Wastler said. “With a piece of Internet journalism you have the opportunity to blend in graphics, video, audio, related links – the product that you're giving to your reader is a much more textured and deep report than what you could ever do on a newspaper sheet.”

But not all of Wastler's decisions have been so wise.

“As a journalist, you're always going to make mistakes,” Wastler said, adding that it's the nature of the beast. “I can recall a couple stories I did when I was covering the Longshore union on the west coast where I was really unfair at a couple points. I got so involved in the story [that] I couldn't take a deep breath and step back and say, ‘Am I doing this the right way? Am I being fair?'

“Looking back in my career, I wish I could go… Did I slander anybody? No. But I could have done the stories differently. I really didn't have a lot of strong editing support to help me on that. I wish I had, but I didn't.”

To hear more from CNBC's Managing Editor – including his comments on CNBC's deep-dive report into the world of marijuana (a $40 billion industry!) – don't miss Part 1 or Part 2 of Benzinga's interview with Allen Wastler.