What happens when the biz media covers the same story

Douglas McIntyre of 24/7WallSt.com writes about the increasing overlap among business news media in the stories that they cover.

McIntyre writes, “The question of why people pick one business medium over another then swings around to issues of opinion or commentary. Do people read the New York Times business section because of Wall St. expert Andrew Ross Sorkin — the Zelig-like man who can appear on CNBC and in the Times building at the same time. Do people go to and stay at TheStreet because of Jim Cramer, who also spends a great deal of time in front of cameras at CNBC. Do readers go to and return to Business Insider because they want to read what editor-in-chief Henry Blodget has to say? Blodget also appears to be in two places at the same time — in his office at Business Insider and on the set of Yahoo! Inc.’s financial TV.

“A great deal of the research on the media deals with whether major news outlets are credible. Pew issues data on this once a year. That research covers the ‘major’ media such as CNN, Fox News and USA Today. The business press may have a different problem. Much of the content coverage the business press reports and writes about may be credible to the reader. But is it different enough from medium to medium? Probably not, based on a look at headlines that are often common across these media. That leaves a long-term problem that editorial stars like Andrew Ross Sorkin and Henry Blodget cannot solve. Neither can ‘scoops’ probably. There is just too much overlap among the business press that covers the same things. The business media business, in other words, is too crowded.”