Oakland Tribune rolls out standalone biz section, but downplays economy

Stephen Buel writes on the East Bay Express web site that the decision by the Oakland Tribune to roll out a standalone business section in the paper (I can find no link to the newspaper’s announcement) was good, but the paper shouldn’t be downplaying what’s happening in the economy as a result.

Buel wrote, “The changes appear to herald a greater emphasis on local, regional, and business news and a reduction in the space and prominence of the paper’s national and world news coverage. As goals, it’s hard to fault those priorities, but if the scant attention the Trib paid to global economic uncertainty in Tuesday’s edition is indicative of the paper’s new direction, the editors should reconsider their priorities.

“In an editor’s note in Tuesday’s paper, Bay Area Newspaper Group Vice President for News Kevin G. Keane touted the changes as a way to increase the space devoted to local, regional, and business news. Since the Trib doesn’t appear to be staffing up, what Keane’s note suggested is that the paper will now devote more space to stories from its sister papers in Southern Alameda County, Contra Costa County, the Peninsula and San Jose.

“Smart integration of news from all its many papers has always been the promised upside of the vast merger deal that left Dean Singleton’s BANG in possession of virtually every Bay Area daily not named Chronicle. And anything that can be done to beef up the Trib‘s long-anemic business coverage is certainly welcome.”

Read more here.