ABC News to focus on economy, personal finance next week

David Bauder of the Associated Press writes about how ABC News will have coverage of how businesses and consumers have changed how they operate in the wake of the economic crisis across a broad range of its shows next week.

Bauder writes, “It’s becoming a minitrend: network news divisions that intensely focus on one story to draw attention to it. ABC has done it in the past on health care and Iraq society. In April, CBS News got a strong reaction to its reports on how the economic crisis was affecting children. It’s a way to step back and gain some perspective, Westin said.

“‘It is a symbol to say that this is an important issue, not just an urgent issue, because too often the urgent drives out the important in all of our lives,’ Westin said.

“Too often there’s a tendency, particularly with cable news and business channels, to cover news like a box score each day. (Are stock prices going up or down?)

“ABC’s rivals at NBC have arguably benefited over the past year with the economic story coming to the fore because of its association with CNBC. That network’s reporters and anchors often appear on NBC’s ‘Nightly News’ and ‘Today.’ Viewership for ‘Nightly News’ has gone up during the past year, while ABC’s ‘World News’ has gone down.”

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