Business news on a community level

Ray Lamont of the Gloucester Daily Times in Massachusetts writes Saturday about how a small-town paper covers business news during the current economic turmoil.

Lamont writes, “But the more I thought about it, I thought about what the caller must have wondered. And though she didn’t, she could have easily asked, why does your community newspaper just cover business news one day a week?

“Well, the answer to that’s an easy one. We don’t just cover local business once a week. The page dedicated solely to Business news — with local and regional features and the local Business Briefcase announcing promotions, new openings and other news — indeed runs weekly on Tuesdays. But more and more — as local economic issues take the center spotlight, just as they are across the nation — we’re giving business and the economy Page 1 coverage on a regular basis as well.

“I’m not just talking about features in recent weeks about new Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce Director Bob Hastings, for example. You see, we may not always think of them as such, but aren’t business, development and the Gloucester and the Cape Ann economy really at the core of our news and editorial coverage of stories about the city’s harbor plan? The Gloucester Crossing project? And — especially over this last week — the present and future state of the fishing industry, which also plays such an important role in Gloucester’s attractiveness as a tourism destination?”

Read more here.