Canadian paper editor responds to readers upset about dropped listings

Earlier this week, the London Free Press in Canada dropped mutual fund listings during the week, instead running them only on Saturday. Also earlier this week, the newspaper’s business editor wrote a column about the deluge of phone calls that he had received as a result.

Now comes Paul Berton, the paper’s top editor, attempting to explain in Saturday’s paper why the decision was made.

Berton writes, “The London Free Press has been carrying mutual fund tables since the 1980s, when we started with a few dozen.

“Since then, of course, the number of mutual funds has exploded. We cut them back in the early part of this decade, and now will run them Saturdays only.

“Part of the reason for this is that many of our readers want more business news, which we are now able to deliver because of the space freed up by the mutuals. They say a Saturday list is plenty.

“They also say they can check their mutual fund portfolio much more efficiently on the Internet through our website at lfpress.com.

“That, however, is cold comfort to those who do not use the Internet and have no intention of ever venturing there.”

Read the rest of Berton’s column here. Can’t say that I’ve ever seen a paper attempt to respond to reader furor over cut listings twice.