Investors want to make money, but biz journalists make copy

TheStreet.com’s Marek Fuchs explains that people who use business news to try to make money in the market might become frustrated because it’s not the job of a business journalist to help investors make money. Fuchs wrote, “It was reported that sales of previously owned U.S. homes were down 0.8% in December, making 2006 the […]

No consensus on why the market dropped

Hal Morris, who writes on the grumpyeditor.com blog, took a look at this morning’s coverage of Monday’s markets and wonders what’s going on. Morris wrote, “Pity business writers of stock market action. Looking for reasons behind daily movements require constant development of fresh phrases. Yesterday’s 88.37 drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average — biggest […]

Weiss: Hedge fund coverage needs to explain itself

Forbes.com columnist Gary Weiss pointed out on his blog that stories in the past two weeks from various news sources have printed contradictory numbers regarding the performance of hedge funds in 2006. Weiss noted that Reuters reported that a hedge fund index from Credit Suisse reported that the average fund had a return of 13.8 […]

Jobs being cut at Dow Jones Newswires

Dow Jones plans to cut an undisclosed number of jobs at its Newswire operations as part of a restructuring that also includes its Factiva operations, according to a Bloomberg story. The Bloomberg story stated, “The number of positions to be eliminated will be announced at a company meeting this morning, a spokeswoman, Diane Thieke, said. […]

Business journalists act like stenographers sometimes

TheStreet.com’s Mark Fuchs wonders why business journalists, especially those who work at the wires, act like stenographers when breaking news occurs. Fuchs wrote, “A press release hits the wires at 8:30 a.m. EST on Friday. It travels into the public consciousness, and within 90 minutes, four news outlets write several sentences each on it. Boys […]

Press declares that housing slump is over

Marek Fuchs of TheStreet.com points out that the business media have begun writing about the housing market as if it’s about to turn around when that may not be the case. Fuchs wrote, “The Business Press Maven is always highly critical of the business media for allowing a pattern of three to qualify as a […]

Top 10 biz journalism events for 2006

Yes, I am once again succumbing to the easy temptation of a list, an odious form of journalism that I don’t like. But the people, they seem to like these lists. So here are the top 10 events in business journalism for 2006: 10. The failure of business journalists to accurately report about the holiday […]

Reuters has a new editor in chief

David Schlesinger becomes the new Reuters editor in chief, according to a story in the Guardian. He is taking over for Geert Linnebank, who next month will become a senior adviser to CEO Tom Glocer. Schlesinger is a Connecticut native, and he has degrees from Oberlin and Harvard. Chris Tryhorn wrote, “The new editor-in-chief has […]

Trading stocks based on biz news

Reuters has begun selling a service that allows people to buy and sell stocks based on news events, according to a New York Times story. Jeremy Peters wrote, “They will give subscribers the ability to mine past and present Reuters news articles in real time and automatically buy, sell or hold a stock based on […]

CNBC.com: A Bloomberg for everyday people

Variety’s Michael Learmonth takes a look at the launch of CNBC.com and what it will mean for the cable channel’s journalists, as well as its strategy. Learmonth wrote, “Until last summer its Web activities had been undertaken in partnership with MSN. That deal expired in July, and the net hired a staff of 55 to […]