Examining the financial news industry

Robin Wigglesworth of The Financial Times examines the financial journalism market.

Wigglesworth writes, “In case you blinked and missed it, financial news only generated $1.7bn of revenues last year.

“In other words: News has easily been the slowest-growing part of the broader industry over the past five years, despite all the attention it generates (find someone who loves you as much as journalists love writing about other journalists).

“The news providers included in this data are primarily outlets like Bloomberg, Dow Jones and Refinitiv newswires, along with niche media like Argus. One bright spot is that the market for financial news is less concentrated than the broader financial-information industry, judging by Burton Taylor’s estimates (which it derives from talking with the mostly private companies, and are said to be pretty accurate).

“That said — and perhaps we’re clutching at straws here — the Burton Taylor numbers probably underestimate the importance of news to these businesses.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.