Asheville launches stand-alone biz section next week

The Asheville Citizen-Times, a Gannett newspaper in western North Carolina, will launch a stand-alone business section on April 9 as part of a redesign of the entire newspaper, notes Susan Ihne, the paper’s executive editor.

Ihne writes, “In February, we took the prototypes to focus groups – five groups of up to 15 people each. First, they talked about what they liked and didn’t like about the Citizen-Times. When they got the prototypes, they spent about 20 to 30 minutes looking through them.

“They went over surprisingly well. They had many suggestions, some of which we were able to incorporate and some that we couldn’t.”

One oddity will remain: The obituaries will remain in the back of the business section.

Read Ihne’s column here.