Biz coverage essential to paper’s success

Bill Dries of the Memphis Daily News writes about how business news coverage is essential to the success of the 125-year-old paper’s success.

Dries writes, “Though the newspaper no longer uses the three-word mottos that were on the masthead from the 1920s through the 1970s – first, ‘Trade. Finance. Court.’; and later, ‘Trade-Finance-Legal’ – it remains at the forefront of the city’s most pressing business topics.

“The Daily News’ coverage of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, for example, began before its onset as local developments began pointing to a specific economic direction.

“In the three years that have followed, the paper has chronicled the devastation of parts of the city where foreclosure rates have been among the highest in the country.

“It also has covered the city’s hard-fought efforts to counter that devastation and the recent concerted campaign to bring new manufacturing jobs, in particular, to the city and compete for jobs in a three-state area.”

Read more here.