Boston Globe becomes latest paper to cut stock listings

The Boston Globe announced in Tuesday’s newspaper that it will join the long list of metro dailies cutting stock listings and encouraging readers to find stock price information on the Internet.

Other papers to have made the change include the New York Times, Newsday, Chicago Tribune, Rocky Mountain News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Orlando Sentinel and The (Raleigh) News & Observer.

The Globe story said, “The newspaper will replace its Tuesday through Saturday tables with a one-page package of stories, graphics, and photos highlighting the most significant market events of the day. The Globe will continue to publish weekly stock and mutual fund listings on Sundays.

“The Globe’s online partner, Boston.com, will offer a new, more robust package of interactive tools and market information that includes personalized e-mail alerts about stocks and mutual funds. The Globe also will continue to offer access to up-to-the minute price quotes on stocks and mutual funds by telephone.

“In eliminating daily publication of stock and fund listings, the Globe joins a growing number of large newspapers, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune, that have moved those tables from the newspaper to other platforms to reduce costs and provide a more compelling package of financial news and information.

“‘Readers have been turning to the Internet at an accelerating pace for stock and mutual fund quotes,’ said Martin Baron, editor of the Globe. ‘That has prompted many newspapers like ours to shift away from spending heavily on pages of financial tables in favor of enhanced Web-based investor services.'”

Read more here. Baron, by the way, is a former business editor at the Los Angeles Times and Miami Herald.