Just perusing chat and came across this back-and-forth. Gotta say, Inaki's right on this. It's not true that "ideas an employee states in, say, a brainstorming session, belong to the employer." In fact, an idea in and of itself will almost never be a trade secret. As Inaki quoted, a trade secret is a "plan or process."
In this policy note (uspto.gov/ip-policy/trade-secret-policy) from the US Patent and Trademark Office, trade secrets are further described as "consist[ing] of information and can include a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process."
Further, in analyzing whether something is a trade secret, Courts most often consider whether the information in question is "used in business[ ]and give[s] an opportunity to obtain an economic advantage over competitors who do not know or use it."
To jump back to the journalism scenario, it wouldn't be a journalist's idea for a story (expressed in a meeting or not) that would potentially be a trade secret; rather, if the newspaper developed a quicker and more accurate way of fact-checking all of its stories, which allows it to save money, go to print earlier, and be more accurate than its competitors... that would be a trade secret.
More realistically, a common type of trade secret is a company's customer / client lists.
Discussion on answer by user6726: Int…
Discussion on answer by user6726: Int…