Business journalists: King of the domain

Peter Wilby of The Guardian writes Monday how business journalists have now become king of the newsroom. Even though he’s writing about the situation in England, I think it has some applicability here in the colonies.

Wilby wrote, “But business reporters were then somewhat less likely to rise through the ranks than education correspondents (of whom I was one). Rees-Mogg had first converted to general punditry. Business journalism was not generally seen as providing a sufficiently wide background by itself.

“That is no longer so. Business journalists have become stars. Red-tops have business editors, and even the Guardian places the financial pages so that you read them before you get to the Marxists (joking, joking) on the leader pages. The Telegraph’s Jeff Randall, an aggressive cheerleader for business journalism, has observed that ‘the City editor of the Sunday Times sits next to the editor at big swanky dos whenever the proprietor is in town’.

“The change came about sometime in the 80s. I suggest two reasons. First, the country in general and the press in particular became more obsessed with money. Financial services are now so important to the economy that, to understand how Britain works, it is necessary to understand what hedge funds, derivatives, libor rates and sub-prime mortgages actually are.”

Read more here.